UK proposes new trading system for developing countries

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will reward the advantages of free commerce between Commonwealth international locations on a go to to Rwanda on Thursday as he proposes a brand new system for enhancing commerce as an alternative choice to that run by the European Union.

    A yr and a half after Britain left the EU, Johnson is seeking to increase commerce with the Commonwealth, a community of 54 international locations which are largely former British colonies.

    The Commonwealth, headed by Queen Elizabeth, just isn’t a proper buying and selling bloc with a free-trade settlement. However the community contains a couple of third of the world’s inhabitants and a few of its fastest-growing economies.

    A day earlier than the heads of Commonwealth governments assembly begins in Kigali on Friday, Johnson will say he needs to begin a brand new commerce system to cut back prices and simplify guidelines for 65 growing international locations, together with many within the Commonwealth.

It will scale back tariffs on meals, garments and different objects by 750 million kilos a yr, he’ll say.

The brand new system would see Britain change the European Union’s Generalised System of Preferences, which applies import duties at diminished charges, with what might be generally known as the Creating Nations Buying and selling Scheme.

    “It’s an under-appreciated indisputable fact that our distinctive union of countries is buzzing with financial exercise,” Johnson will say.

“The brand new initiatives we’re launching immediately will make sure the UK is on the forefront of seizing alternatives, driving shared progress and prosperity for the advantage of all of our individuals.”

Earlier this yr, Britain struck a 120 million pound ($148 million) cope with Rwanda to deport asylum seekers to the East African nation however the first such flight was halted final week by the European Courtroom of Human Rights.

The scheme has been extensively criticised as inhumane. Prince Charles, the inheritor to the throne, who’s representing his mom on the Commonwealth summit, privately described the plan as “appalling”, in accordance with newspaper stories.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Modifying by Catherine Evans)