LONDON: Britain will set out a plan on Monday to stimulate trade with 70 developing economies, including Pakistan, by lowering tariffs and simplifying rules, its latest push to promote freer global commerce after regaining control of its trade policy following Brexit.
The government will detail the Developing Countries Trading Scheme in a consultation document. The plan builds on an existing European Union scheme that Britain was part of before leaving the bloc at the end of last year and has kept in place while working on its new program.
“Now the UK is an independent trading nation we have a huge opportunity do things differently, taking a more liberal, pro-trade approach that leads to growth and opportunity,” trade minister Liz Truss said.
The scheme seeks to further reduce the bureaucratic burden of trade between Britain and developing countries, as well as countries classed as low or lower-middle income such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia.
As well as reducing tariffs for goods coming into Britain, the scheme aims to simplify the “rules of origin” that determine where a product with a cross-border supply chain is made for taxation purposes.
Britain said it had studied similar schemes in Canada, the United States, Japan and the EU when drawing up its new program. The government is seeking views on the plan from businesses and other stakeholders over the next eight weeks.
Britain sets out plan to stimulate trade with developing economies, including Pakistan
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Britain sets out plan to stimulate trade with developing economies, including Pakistan
- Scheme seeks to further reduce bureaucratic burden between Britain and countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia
- Plan builds on the existing European Union scheme that Britain was part of before leaving the bloc at the end of last year
Hundreds of migrants, including Pakistanis, land in Greece after search operation at sea
- Rescued migrants were taken to a temporary facility on Crete after reaching the port of Agia Galini
- Greece has made deportations of rejected asylum seekers a priority under its migration policy
ATHENS: Greece’s Coast Guard rescued about 540 migrants from a fishing boat off Europe’s southernmost island of Gavdos on Friday, one of the biggest groups to reach the country in recent months.
The migrants were found during a Greek search operation some 16 nautical miles (29.6 km) off Gavdos, a Coast Guard statement said. They are all well and are being taken to a temporary facility on the nearby island of Crete after reaching the port of Agia Galini, a Coast Guard official said, adding most of the migrants were men from Bangladesh, Egypt and Pakistan.
In a separate incident on Thursday, the EU’s border agency Frontex rescued 65 men and five women from two migrant boats in distress off Gavdos, the Greek Coast Guard said.
Greece was on the front line of a 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people from the Middle East and Africa landed on its shores before moving on to other European countries, mainly Germany.
Flows have ebbed since then, but both Crete and Gavdos — the two Mediterranean islands nearest to the African coast — have seen a steep rise in migrant boats, mainly from Libya, reaching their shores over the past year and deadly accidents remain common along that route.
Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy will be eligible for help in dealing with migratory pressures under a new EU mechanism when the bloc’s pact on migration and asylum enters into force in mid-2026.
The center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said deportation of rejected asylum seekers will be a priority.
