The UK launched the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), which will extend tariff cuts to hundreds of more products exported from developing countries, going further than the European Union’s (EU) Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP). This is on top of the thousands of products that developing countries can already export to the country duty-free.

This will mean 99 per cent of goods imported from Africa under the scheme will enter the United Kingdom duty free, an official press release said.
DCTS covers 65 countries across Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, including some of the poorest countries in the world.

“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,” UK international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said launching the scheme.

A wide variety of products—from clothes and shoes to foods that aren’t widely produced in the UK—will benefit from lower or zero tariffs under the new scheme.

It's aimed at British businesses benefiting from more than £750 million per year of reduced import costs.

The scheme also simplifies complex trade rules such as rules of origin, making it easier for many businesses in developing countries to export and play a larger role in the global trade community, the release added.

This drive includes a new initiative called Platinum Partnerships, designed to grow trade between the UK and selected lower and middle-income Commonwealth countries and reduce dependency on aid. The partnerships will strengthen two-way green trade and investment, helping countries’ adaptation to climate change.