M.E.T.A. City, Metropolitan Electronic Trade Association, is a blue print for the future, a way of going beyond the present limitations of the Era of the nation state in order take full advantage of the potentialities of the Communications Era. Under the META concept, cities of different nations would form a trade association for advanced technologies and techniques. Linked by satellite telecommunications and powerful microcomputers. They would form a vast network of free trade areas exchanging goods and information, In most cases, these urban free trade areas would be the daughters of existing cities. New York would have its META New York. Tokyo its META Tokyo. Sidney its META Sidney, etc. The META cities would "belong' to the mother cities, indirectly governed, on a representative basis, by the META citizens, and the mother cities would benefit from the revenues of its META daughter. Businesses occupying space within a META city complex would have access to the huge international META data banks of information and would be able to move goods through the entire META system free from national duties. Citizens of the META cities could move freely within the entire system, following the demand for their talent and expertise.

Technology and wealth could move more freely within the META system, from developed to developing nations, not on a basis of international charity, but rather along the line of supply and demand. A true global system of interchange would emerge on a more equitable basis than human history has ever seen.

The elements of the META City system are the relatively free movement of information, goods, technology and key personnel through out the global network. In order to understand more clearly how this would work, let us look at each of these elements more closely.

Information: Access to information is the key to the Communications Era and also the key to the META city system. Each META city would become the source of basic data - on resource needs, on goods, on money, on people. Part of this data would come from the computerized cash registers scattered throughout the mother city, which would feed into a central computer the results of the daily shifting of goods in retail and wholesale trade. This inventory status, surpluses and shortages, would tell other cities within the system what a particular city had to sell and what it needed to buy at any given moment.

Manufacturers, whose offices and sometimes their factories, are located within the META city would also feed their inventory status into their city's central data bank, making it instantly known throughout the system what raw materials were needed, and what manufactured goods were ready for shipment.

In this way, raw materials, parts and finished goods would quickly and easily find their optimum markets, regardless of where those markets were in the globe.

Equally important, other kinds of information would also be fed into the META city data banks - technological innovations, climatic data, shifts in consumer tastes, demographic movements, job opportunities, all of the information, short-term and long-term, which is required to make intelligent economic decisions.

Therefore, the first thing to realize about the META city concept, is that it would effectively constitute a enormous data bank, available to each member city, and to all firms, within the system.

Goods: The gathering and processing of raw materials, the manufacturing of goods and the marketing of them is the essence of trade. We have already seen how the informational aspect of the META city system could greatly facilitate international trade. Trade would also be facilitated, however, through the free-trade nature of the META City system.

Each META city would constitute a free trade zone. Once something entered the META City system, at any geographic point, in any condition, unprocessed raw material, assembled market-ready finished good--. It would not be subject to duties or taxes until it left the system at any geographic point. It would be possible, in other words, to bring raw materials into the system process them, turn them into finished products and transport them to the META cities nearest the market areas without paying any levies until they were dispersed to markets outside of the free trade zones.

This free movement of materials and goods throughout the META City System would mean a considerable cost reduction to manufacturers and consumers alike. The global free trade status would be more efficient, since there would be no duties to avoid. This efficiency would be augmented, of course, through access to the META City System data banks which would direct the movement of materials and goods when and where they were needed.

Governments, local or national, would not be deprived of revenue, since they would levy their taxes once goods left the free trade zones located within their jurisdiction. However, instead of the price of a product reflecting the accumulated duties and taxes, which its various components had picked up in their movements across international borders, it would bear only the taxes levied within the country of sale. Thus only when a product is consumed would the burden of taxation be imposed, since until then it has been nonproductive. The reduction in cost carry forward would result in a much lower capital requirement for trade.

Technology: The entire META City concept depends upon each member city and all member firms having access to the highest level of technology. There would be no colonies within the META system, each part would have equal access to technology and revenue.

The META City itself would represent a highly complex technological system, with its advanced communications, highly mechanized cargo shifting capabilities, and unique designs for work and living.