entrepôt

plural entrepôts · alternative entrepot

1. businessA city, port, or other place where merchandise is sent for import, processing, distribution, and/or export, especially one where such merchandise is exempt from some customs duties; hence, a commercial centre.

   A former British colony that reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong has long enjoyed a reputation as a capitalist entrepôt where companies operate relatively free from regulation.

   2025 March 31, Ann Scott Tyson, “How a 43-port business deal threatens China’s global power”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the original on 13 Apr 2025

   2 more examples

   South of Taichung is the old port town of Lu-kang. Here again we come face to face with Taiwan's past, sometimes in dramatic fashion. Founded in the seventeenth century, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Lu-kang was an important port city with strong ties to Ch'uan-chou—the eighteenth-century classic but declining entrepôt of southern Min Fukien.

   1999, Murray A. Rubenstein, “Introduction”, in Murray A. Rubinstein, editor, Taiwan: A New History (An East Gate Book; Taiwan in the Modern World), Armonk, N.Y.; London: M[yron] E. Sharpe, →ISBN, page x

   So why is Mr [David] Cameron's government pursuing an immigration policy that is creating red tape, stifling entrepreneurs and hobbling Britain? The country has, in effect, installed a "keep out" sign over the white cliffs of Dover. Even as Mr Cameron defends the City of London as a global financial centre, and takes planeloads of business folk on foreign trips, his government ratchets up measures that would turn an entrepôt into a fortress.

   2012 October 20, “Immigration: The Tories’ barmiest policy”, in The Economist, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2012

2. archaicbusinessThe temporary storage of merchandise, especially for subsequent distribution or export.
3. alsoarchaicfigurativelybusinessA depot or warehouse for temporarily storing merchandise.