The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) on July 19 announced an open consultation in its efforts to design the country’s trade preferences scheme for developing nations, with comments due by September 12.

The DIT has committed to considering the views of all sectors of society and international stakeholders.

To reiterate, the DIT is seeking views on proposed changes to the trade preferences scheme, which reduces or removes import tariffs or customs duties on imports from 70 developing countries. The open consultation offers respondents the opportunity to provide views on: simplifying rules-of-origin requirements for least-developed countries; simplifying and reducing tariffs for low- income and lower-middle-income countries in the Enhanced and General Frameworks; reassessing the approach to goods graduation for countries in the General Framework; and reassessing some conditions of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) applicable to all three frameworks and those which specifically apply to the Enhanced Framework. The new UK preferences scheme, known as the Developing Countries Trading Scheme, will take effect in 2022.

To facilitate the consultation, the DIT published four documents, namely ‘GSP Consultation: Commodity Codes Table’; ‘Statement of Direction’: ‘Designing a New UK Trade Preferences Scheme to Take Effect in 2022’; ‘Information Pack on the UK’s GSP’; and ‘GSP Consultation Questions’. The DIT also referenced two websites to be consulted.

The first, for the Statement of Direction, details the policy proposals and features an information pack and a tariff schedule and is available at:

www.ditresearch.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_71Uup1kN0ZhD8tE

The second, for the proposed changes to the UK’s trade preferences scheme, currently known as the UK GSP, is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/trading-with-developing-nations. The website is called ‘Guidance: Trading with Developing Nations’, with the secondary title ‘Details on the UK’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences’.

Besides these two websites, there is a third one: ‘Guidance: Check Your Goods Meet the Rules of Origin’, with the secondary title ‘Rules to establish the country of origin of imported and exported goods and to help identify goods which qualify for lower or no customs duty’ – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-your-goods-meet-the-rules-of-origin

Returning to the Statement of Direction – it states: “As of January 1, the UK has had its own GSP largely replicating the European Union’s GSP. The UK’s GSP has three frameworks: the General Framework, for low- and lower-middle-income countries, [which] benefit from the full or partial removal of customs duties on two-thirds of tariff lines; the Enhanced Framework, for low- and lower-middle-income countries that also ratify and effectively implement 27 international conventions, [which] benefit from the full removal of customs duties on two-thirds of tariff lines; and the Least Developed Country Framework, for all countries that are classified as least-developed countries by the United Nations, [which] benefit from duty- [and] quota-free access for all products except arms and ammunition.”

The statement details the policy objectives thus: “The overarching objective of the policy changes is to increase trade with beneficiary countries, thereby supporting their economic growth. An improved scheme will enable developing countries to export more to the UK and further integrate into the global economy, creating stronger trade and investment partners for the future. We propose that the preference improvements should seek to improve access for all eligible countries and will be guided by the following objectives: a simpler scheme for partner countries and businesses to understand and use, a scheme that supports sustainable growth, [and] coherence with the UK’s trade policy ambitions to be a leader on trade for development.”

The DIT’s mission is to help businesses export, drive inward and outward investment, negotiate market access and trade deals, and champion free trade. If the UK is an important market for your goods, you need to take notice of the DIT.