Booze, coffee and trainers will all be cheaper from next year after £30bn of post-Brexit tariffs slashed
BOOZE, coffee, trainers and a raft of household items are among the imported goods that will be cheaper next year under the Government’s post-Brexit blueprint to slash £30 billion worth of tariffs.
Consumers will also get more choice under the UK’s new tariff regime confirmed by ministers yesterday - the first time Britain has set its own, independent rates on how much to tax imported goods.
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It will slash the cost of thousands of imported goods, with 60 per cent of trade coming into the UK tariff-free when Britain is finally free of EU rules in January 2021 - equivalent to £62 billion of imports overall.
This compares to 47 per cent of tariff free trade under EU membership, which will still apply until the Brexit transition period ends at the end of the year.
Tariffs on goods not produced in the UK will be eliminated in order to lower prices on supermarket shelves and widen choice for consumers.
This will cut the price of goods such as coffee, wine, sugar, citrus fruits, olives, trainers, pistachios and other nuts.
In a bid to cut red tape for businesses, all tariffs that are currently less than 2.5 per cent are to be eliminated altogether.
That will make household items like dishwashers, freezers, cooking products such as cocoa and baking powder, electric shavers, scales, electric fuses, bike pumps, tiles, bricks, garden shears and even Christmas trees cheaper.
All import taxes on sanitary products and tampons will be abolished too.
The UK will also see thousands of complex EU tariff variations on products scrapped - including more than 13,000 tariff variations on products including biscuits, waffles, pizzas, quiches, confectionery and spreads.
Businesses will benefit under the plans, which will remove tariffs on key production elements such as bolts for machines, cement, alloys, glass rods, window frames or sheets of glass and sugar for food production.
In total, the changes will remove tariffs on £30 billion worth of imports entering UK supply chains, the Department for International Trade said.
The tariffs schedule - covering almost 10,000 goods - will be applied to all goods from countries that Britain does not have a trade deal with.
This will include EU goods if the current trade talks fail to agree a deal by December 31.
It will lower tariffs on as many products as possible where they do not risk a detrimental impact on UK producers.
The plans are designed to benefit households through greater choice and lower prices.
But tariffs will remain high in strong UK industries such as cars and agriculture to ensure foreign producers are not able to flood the market.
This includes keeping a 10 per cent tariff on car imports and the UK will also maintain 80 per cent of tariffs on ceramic goods entering the country.
The 10 per cent tariff on cars could add to the cost of vehicles from European manufacturers if a trade deal with Brussels is not struck by the end of the year.
The plans were published yesterday to give British businesses plenty of time to prepare and also inform current trade negotiations with the EU and the US so they know what Britain’s baseline trade tariffs will be if a deal cannot be reached.
The tariffs aim to protect UK farmers in particular goods such as lamb, beef and poultry farmers but will also simplify agricultural tariffs and slash import taxes on food the UK doesn’t produce.
Officials said the plans strike a balance between consumer and commercial interests by aiming to be more liberal, tailored to the UK economy rather than 28 EU member states and simpler and easier to navigate to help traders.
Currently the EU average tariff is 7.2 per cent but the UK average will be 4 per cent - aided by the elimination of all ‘nuisance’ tariffs that are under 2 per cent.
In another move to simplify trade for businesses, all goods with a tariff of under 20 per cent will be rounded down to the nearest 2 per cent; everything over 50 per cent will be reduced to the nearest 5 per cent and everything over 80 per cent will be shaved to the nearest 10 per cent.
Currently the EU dictates all tariffs on imports across the bloc and the World Trade Organisation has described Brussels’ tariffs regime as the most complex in the world.
Trade Secretary Liz Truss said: “For the first time in 50 years we are able to set our own tariff regime that is tailored to the UK economy.
“Our new Global Tariff will benefit UK consumers and households by cutting red tape and reducing the cost of thousands of everyday products.
“With this straightforward approach, we are backing UK industry and helping businesses overcome the unprecedented economic challenges posed by Coronavirus.”
The Government has set a temporary zero tariff rate on some products used to fight Covid-19 which would otherwise charge a levy under the new regime, though it added that most pharmaceuticals and medical devices - including ventilators - are set to be tariff-free.
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