Les zones franches industrielles d’exportation dans la Caraïbe. Les causes économiques de leur émergence

The free zones are spaces of social and legislative exemptions. They are specialized in manufacturing activities dominated mainly by the textile assembly. They develop in the Caribbean during decades 1980s and 1990s, in a favourable economic environment. In this article we question the economic causes of their emergence. These industrial areas are difficult to define as these activities are diverse and evolving over time. For this reason in the first part we deal with the complexity of the concept. Then we will see the economic causes of their emergence. The semi-failed policies of industrialization by import substitution industrialization oriented toward the extrovert. The IMF adjustment plans to regulate the problem of indebtedness has been a catalyst for exports of manufactured goods. Meanwhile, the trade agreements of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) with the U.S.A. supervised their development. Finally, we show how their presence in the Caribbean, conditions that lead to geographical differences between completely free zone islands and those where the free zones are economic enclaves. The recent study in the Dominican Republic will highlight their spatial expansion