UK’s new trading scheme to benefit Nigeria, other developing countries

United Kingdom’s international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has launched the new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), which will extend tariff cuts to hundreds of more products exported from developing countries, going further than the European Union’s generalised scheme of preferences.

This is on top of the thousands of products which developing countries can already export to the UK duty-free and this means that 99 percent of goods imported from Africa, for example will enter the UK duty-free.

The scheme means that a wide variety of products, ranging from clothes and shoes to foods that are not widely produced in the UK including olive oil and tomatoes, will benefit from lower or zero tariffs.

DCTS ensures that British businesses can benefit from more than £750 million per year of reduced import costs, leading to more choice and lower costs for UK consumers to help with the cost of living.

“As an independent trading nation, we are taking back control of our trade policy and making decisions that back UK businesses, help with the cost of living, and support the economies of developing countries around the world,” Trevelyan said.

She stated that UK businesses can look forward to less red-tape and lower costs, incentivising firms to import goods from developing countries.

For Gill Atkinson, acting British high commissioner to Nigeria, “Nigeria will automatically benefit from enhanced preferences under the DCTS. This means that 99 percent of total goods exported from Nigeria are eligible for duty-free access to the UK, saving £500,000 of tariffs.”

Atkinson noted that, for instance, cocoa butter exporters will save £180,000. The new DCTS will also simplify seasonal tariffs, meaning additional access for Nigeria’s exports to the UK.

The DCTS covers 65 countries across Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas including some of the poorest countries in the world.

It removes some seasonal tariffs, meaning more options for British supermarkets and shops all year round. For example, cucumbers, which can’t be grown in the UK in the winter, will now be tariff-free during this period for the majority of countries in the scheme.

This work is part of a wider push by the UK to drive a free trade, pro-growth agenda across the globe, using trade to drive prosperity and help eradicate poverty.

DCTS replaces the UK generalised scheme of preferences, which was rolled over from the EU membership, and will come into force in early 2023. The scheme covers 37 countries in Africa, 18 in Asia, eight in Oceania and two in the Americas, representing varied and exciting trade opportunities around the world.

Key aspects of the DCTS include making product-specific rules and rules on cumulation more generous and easier to follow for least developed countries, and ensuring that goods which are genuinely competitive in the UK do not get preferential tariffs.

The DCTS will also aim at making it simpler for developing countries to get the enhanced trade preferences in the scheme whilst including powers to suspend a country on the grounds of human rights and labour rights violations.

Furthermore, it would for the first time include powers to suspend countries that are not meeting their climate change and environment-related obligations.