Download Briefing Paper 74 Briefing Paper 74 – April 2023 Mattia Di Ubaldo, Guillermo Larbalestier and Manuel Tong Koecklin Key Points Introduction No more conditions, deeper preferences and less uncertainty Who will really benefit from the changes in the Enhanced DCTS access criteria? More favourable rules of origin for LDCs Conclusion Key Points Non-reciprocal trade preferences are a policy tool that can promote export-led growth in developing countries. In the UK, the current scheme – the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) – will be replaced by the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) in 2023. The new DCTS introduces minimal changes to the preferential tariff schedules across the three sub-schemes. Instead, there are changes in the eligibility criteria for countries to access the more preferential Enhanced Preferences sub-scheme; and changes in the rules of origin (RoOs) enabling use of the preferences under the Comprehensive Preferences sub-scheme offered to Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Potential duty savings for countries moving from the GSP General Framework to the DCTS Enhanced Preferences are very small, as these countries do not trade much in products benefiting from GSP or DCTS preferences. However, the new system offers greater certainty which can contribute to growth and [...]

A Post-Brexit Generalized System of Preferences for the UK: How to Guarantee Unchanged Market Access For Developing Countries? Download Briefing Paper 32 Briefing Paper 32 – June 2019 Author: Mattia Di Ubaldo Key Points Introduction The GSP of the EU as a Starting Model for the UK Quantification of Mechanical Graduations and Vulnerability Criteria Possible Adjustments to the UK’s GSP Thresholds matter – Political Economy versus Development Goals. Conclusion Footnotes References  Online Appendix Key points  The unilateral nature of a Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) would allow the UK to apply a preferential regime swiftly, but simply rolling over the scheme of the EU might affect developing countries’ access to the UK market. Maintaining the lists of beneficiaries, eligible products and tariff margins is the first step towards ensuring that developing countries’ market access to the UK is unaffected by Brexit. The maintenance of the current rules for preference removal (i.e. graduation) can be problematic. The uneven distribution of trade between the UK and the EU implies that the current import-share thresholds, which determine graduations, can provoke the loss of preferences, either in the UK or the EU, without any change in [...]