Economy

Brexit: UK says zero duty stays for 48 states

tea

In 2015, UK imported 103,000 tonnes of tea from beneficiary economies. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The UK government has said it will continue to offer duty free access to the world’s least developed countries including Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda whatever the outcome of its Brexit negotiations with the European Union.

London will also offer to “promote” exports which do not meet the Least Developed Country (LDC) criteria from developing economies such as Kenya through the Department for International Development) DFID’s agricultural programme which it says could help over 900,000 people to earn better livings from agriculture.

In 2015, 79 per cent of tea in the UK came from ‘beneficiary countries of trade preferences’ amounting to £186 million.

DFiD says £129 million of this came from African economies —£111 million from Kenya. In total the UK imported 103,000 tonnes of tea from beneficiary economies.

DFiD also says that countries which benefit from preferential access to the UK exported over 22 er cent of all UK coffee imports. These countries exported nearly £131 million worth of coffee into the UK in 2015.