The country’s tuna exports to the UK will enjoy duty-free status upon the   implementation of the generous Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), further boosting the Philippines and UK bilateral trade, which already reached an all-time high in 2022, British Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils said.

The British ambassador pointed to the huge trade opportunities for the Philippines during the launch Wednesday, June 8 of the DCTS, a new UK preferential trading scheme for its 65 developing nations that are home to more than 3.3 billion people.

The DCTS replaces the previous EU-Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Plus when UK was still part of the EU.

Beaufils noted that bilateral trade between the UK and the Philippines hit an all-time high in 2022 to 2.4 billion pounds, but bigger trade opportunities await with the expected implementation of the DCTS.

For example, the 20 percent tariff on Philippine tuna exports to the UK will be removed.  Tuna accounts for over 14 million pounds of average annual exports from 2020 to 2022, the ambassador pointed.

This is because the DCTS retains previous EU-GSP Plus offer and remove import duties for over 150 extra new products including seasonal tariffs that would really benefit Filipino agricultural products, she said.

With that, Philippines will receive access to duty free trade on 92 percent of eligible goods, or over 99 percent of current Philippine exports to the UK.

For example, she said, tariffs on goods such as tuna, shirts, corn starch, and durum wheat flour will all be removed and will create savings of potential millions of dollars for Filipino exporters.

But tariff is just one of the three major changes under the British DCTS. The two others are the removal of conditions and simplified trading rules such as Rules of Origin and other requirements.

On the rules of origin, the DCTS maintained regional groupings. This means the Philippines can accumulate with other DCTS countries in the region such as Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

This makes it easier to trade with the UK and to produce goods using components from other countries without losing duty-free status.

On the removal of conditions, Beaufils said that access to the DCTS is no longer based on international conventions, but only economic criteria of the UK on export diversification. The EU-GSP Plus, which the UK was once a part of before it exited the EU, imposes compliance by its beneficiaries to various international conventions such as human rights for continued enjoyment of preferential tariffs.

Meantime, Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual, in a speech at the same event, cited the UK DCTS for being “one of the most generous trade preference schemes in the world.”

“We look forward to our country having access to duty-free, quota-free trade on 92 percent of our eligible goods or 99 percent of our exports to the UK. These concessions will enable more Philippine exporters to compete in the UK market successfully,” Pascual said.

The scheme's simplified trade conditions and regional cumulation measures will benefit Philippines, he said.
For instance, he said, exporters of electronic products, the country’s top commodity group in 2022, can source components from other Southeast Asian countries, and still claim products as originating from the Philippines.

As the scheme strengthens the UK and the Philippines' economic ties, Pascual said the UK can also look forward to the Philippines' continued development—focused on trade and investments.

“UK businesses will find immense potential in the Philippines as a destination for their investments. Our country has been on a remarkable recovery from the COVID19 pandemic,” he said.

The Philippines GDP growth rate soared to 7.6 percent in 2022, up from 5.7 percent in 2021. This year 2023, the Philippines is forecast to grow at 6 percent.

Despite global economic slowdowns and inflationary pressures, our country remains on track to become an upper-middle income nation in the next few years.

In addition, the government is set to launch the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, which aims to boost trade and investments as drivers of job creation and poverty reduction. The PEDP seeks to elevate the global standing of Philippine export sectors—attracting investments to enhance trade, skills development, and sustainability.