The UK’s Department for
International Trade has launched a consultation to grow “free and fair” trade
with lower income nations.
The scheme will allow countries to diversify their
exports and grow their economies, while British households and businesses
benefit from lower prices and more choice.
The UK currently operates a similar scheme rolled over
from the EU, but as an independent trading nation can now take a “simpler, more
generous, pro-growth” approach to trading with developing countries, the
Department says.
The proposed new UK scheme will mean more opportunity and less
bureaucracy for developing countries, for example by simplifying rules of
origin requirements for the least developed nations.
It will also help lower costs for UK businesses,
leading to lower prices for consumers across a range of everyday products, by
reducing tariffs on imports from low income and lower middle-income countries.
“Trade fundamentally empowers people and
has done more than any single policy in history to lift millions of people
around the world out of poverty,” says International Trade Secretary Liz Truss.
“Now the UK is an independent trading nation we have a
huge opportunity to do things differently, taking a more liberal, pro-trade
approach that leads to growth and opportunity. Countries like Bangladesh and
Vietnam have proven it’s possible to trade your way to better living standards,
and our new Developing Countries Trading Scheme will help others do the same.”
Bangladesh and Vietnam have demonstrated that
increasing trade through schemes like the UK’s DCTS helped them grow their
economy, improve living standards, and drive down poverty.
Vietnam’s exports to the UK more than tripled between 2009 and 2019. Over this
period, the country achieved an average growth rate of more than 6%, while
poverty rates plummeted from more than 20% in 2010 to an estimated 5.9% in
2020.
UK
total imports from Bangladesh more than doubled between 2009 and 2019, during
which time the country achieved an average growth rate of 6.6%. Extreme poverty
rates more than halved from 1991 to 2016/17.
The consultation on the UK’s new scheme
runs for eight weeks and seeks the view of all sectors of society, including
businesses, the public, civil society groups, consumers, associations, partner
governments and any other interested stakeholders.
By Just Style