Customs and Trade News - November 2022
UK set to join the CPTPP
The UK is set to join the CPTPP before the end of this year. This is a free trade agreement with the countries Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. According to GOV.UK it is an £8.4 trillion free trade area. Part of the UK’s objectives for negotiations are to deepen the UK’s access to a group of countries that, the Government said, constituted one of the largest and most dynamic free trade areas in the world, as well as ensuring high standards and protections for UK consumers and workers. The UK has bilateral free trade agreements with most of the CPTPP members however Malaysia will be a new opportunity for traders.
Authorised use
Seafish has been doing some work on the HMRC guidance for “authorised use” customs special procedure, formally known as end use relief. This procedure gives duty relief to goods imported and used for a specific purpose. HMRC guidance specifies that the authorised use for fish can either be processing (examples are filleting and portioning) or the industrial manufacture of products (examples are cooking fish or creating meals).
We would like to put together a small working group for people within the seafood sector who are using this procedure. Our aim is to gather feedback and work with industry and HMRC to ensure that the policy guidance reflects what is required by the industry.
Should you wish to find out more or be involved in this group, please contact us by using the contact details in the further information section.
Using free trade agreements
The Department for International Trade (DIT) have published a page explaining what free trade agreements are and how they can help your business. The page also highlights a range of tools available to help exporters. These include country market guides and the DIT export academy.
The Institute of Export held a webinar on Making the most of the UK’s new free trade agreements as part of DIT’s international trade week. This webinar explains in detail the sections of a free trade agreement, as well as rules of origin in order to claim preferential tariffs. It also highlights the challenges the UK faces when trading internationally such as administrative burdens and time delays at border crossings, explaining how a free trade agreement can provide solutions to this.
We welcome comments and feedback from the seafood industry, so your issues are understood and fed into the free trade agreement negotiations.
Should you wish to email or arrange a meeting, please contact christina.fallah@seafish.co.uk in the Regulation Team.
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