The UK government is looking to introduce a system of lower tariffs for developing countries to encourage greater trade with emerging global markets.

The new Developed Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) is expected to take effect in 2022 and will replace the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP).

According to the Department for International Trade (DIT), the new scheme will be more generous than the EU equivalent.

The government has opened a consultation on the new scheme which will run until 12 September.

Seeking views

As well as the tariff rates included in the scheme, officials are also seeking views on rules of origin, goods graduation rates and reporting requirements for exporters sending goods into the UK.

The scheme is likely to include 70 countries, the Independent reports.

Countries will qualify if they are within the United Nations’ Least Developed Country framework or the World Bank’s measure of low-income and lower-middle-income countries.

The pledge to boost trade with developing countries comes days after the UK Government moved to cut overseas aid by around £4.4 billion this year.

Lower prices for UK

According to the Scotsman, the DIT believes the scheme will also allow countries to diversify their exports and grow their economies, with British households and businesses benefitting from lower prices and more choice.

The UK currently operates a similar scheme to the EU’s GSP but believes changes could see less tariffs on imports from low income and lower middle-income countries.

The UK has looked at how countries such as Canada, the US and Japan, as well as the EU, handle trade with poorer nations, to produce a more generous scheme.

GSP replacement

According to GSP Hub, the EU’s GSP has three tiers of tariff preferences and commitments based on a beneficiary country’s level of development and the implementation of various sustainable development conventions.

More than €200bn of goods were sold in the EU in 2018 under the GSP.