UK businesses will be given further help to become more competitive globally in a new scheme to suspend tariffs on certain imports.
It will allow companies that use imports to ask for duties on them to be partially or wholly withdrawn for a set period, thereby lowering production costs.
During the UK's membership of the EU, companies had to submit applications to the bloc to request suspensions, which then had to be assessed by all member states.
From this month, businesses based in the UK or Crown Dependencies will be able to apply for duties on goods they import to be temporarily reduced or withdrawn. Once a suspension has been introduce, all UK importers will be able to benefit from the reduced rate.
The new scheme will allocate suspensions based on the needs of businesses in the UK and the wider economy, on any import that satisfies the selection criteria set out on gov.uk website - UK Trade Tariff: duty suspensions and tariff quotas - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
In recognition of the challenges surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, existing duty suspensions that the government rolled over from the EU will be extended beyond 31 December 2021 to ensure business certainty.
Greg Hands, the Minister for Trade Policy, said: "Now we have left the EU, we can use suspensions to give UK businesses the maximum possible benefit. This suspensions scheme will be accessible to importers across the country, and those suspensions that are granted will benefit entire sectors"
"They will lower costs and help out superb producers pack even more of a punch when they complete on the global stage."
Businesses will be able to apply from 1 June and the suspensions are expected to apply from early 2022. The application form can be found here - UK Trade Tariff: duty suspensions and tariff quotas - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)