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Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual welcomed the UK’s new trade preference scheme to be implemented this year
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He says the scheme will improve rules and provide better access to the UK market
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The Developing Countries Trading Scheme targets to lower or remove tariffs on a further 156 products from developing countries including the Philippines, in addition to more than 6,000 tariff lines covered by the EU’s GSP+
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The DCTS will replace the UK’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences in early 2023
Trade and Industry secretary Alfredo Pascual welcomed the implementation of the United Kingdom’s new trade preference scheme this year.
The Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) targets to reduce or remove tariffs on additional 156 products for developing countries, including the Philippines, in addition to more than 6,000 tariff lines covered by the European Union’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+).
This extended coverage will include agricultural products such as tomatoes, olive oil, pet food, milk and cream, yogurt, cheese, flour, grains, and starch.
Following the UK’s official departure from the EU in 2020, it has introduced a new, simpler, and more generous trade preferences scheme to improve developing countries’ access to the UK market. The DCTS will replace the UK’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences in early 2023.
“We have been working closely with the UK Government for the past years to ensure that not only do we maintain the same level of access to the UK market, similar to the EU GSP+ but to also pose improvements through simpler rules and procedures, including the Rules of Origin,” Pascual said in a statement.
Further, the Philippine government is actively working on fostering collaborations and meaningful partnerships to maximize the utilization and promote the new DCTS.
To date, the country is awaiting the UK’s full regulation for the implementation of the DCTS, which will set out the complete details on the final product coverage, rules of origin, eligibility criteria, and monitoring procedures, among others.
The UK was the third destination market of Philippine exports under the EU-GSP+ in 2019, with a notably high utilization rate of 75%.
“The DTI continues to accord high importance to this new DCTS, as we see this as a development tool that will assist us in building back better and in bolstering trade and investment relations with the UK,” Pascual said.
In 2021, the UK was the Philippines’ 21st trading partner and fourth source of approved improvements. The Philippines’ exports to the UK also increased 15% from US$414 million in 2020 to $475 million in 2021.
“With our increasing engagements with the UK and across different fora, including the Philippines’ country coordinator role for the ASEAN-UK relations, we foresee these figures to further improve and even surpass previous data reflecting our export performance,” Pascual said.
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