September 12, 2022

New UK trading plan provides businesses access to several products, including animal feed

 
The United Kingdom has launched a new trading plan — the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) — to provide UK businesses with access to hundreds of products, including animal feed.

Under DCTS, tariff cuts will be extended to products imported from 65 developing countries. Since Brexit, the UK has been using the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP), which will be replaced by DCTS in early 2023.

Launched by Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the UK's international trade secretary, the plan is "one of the world's most generous trading schemes with developing countries today". According to government officials, the DCTS covers more ground than the European Union's GSP, offering cuts to hundreds of more products including clothes, shoes and foods that are not widely produced in the UK, like olive oil, animal feed and pet food ingredients.

The DCTS will also support UK businesses, allowing them to benefit from more than £750 million ($860.7 million) per year of reduced import costs.

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

DCTS will cover 65 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas and includes some of the poorest countries globally. It also seeks to simplify complex trading rules, including rules of origin, making it easier for businesses from developing countries to export their products.

Although DCTS boasts preference to countries based on economic vulnerability, government officials detailed the UK would retain powers to suspend countries on the grounds of human rights and labor violations, as well as climate change and environmental conventions.

DCTS is part of the UK's push to drive a free-trade, pro-growth agenda throughout the world, which seeks to eradicate poverty, according to government officials. The UK's Prime Minister also announced a Trade Center of Expertise, which aims to promote a more active, global trading system.

- Pet Food Processing