Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that the proposed Developing Countries Trading Scheme does not cause significant preference erosion.
The Secretary of State for International Trade is responsible for the UK's unilateral preferences scheme, including the design of the new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS). Proposals for the DCTS will be published in 2022.
The DCTS will provide improved access to the UK market for developing countries through a set of simpler, more generous trading arrangements than those in the UK Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) whilst ensuring that existing developing country preferences are maintained where significant interests exist.