The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Richard Montgomery, has said that the United Kingdom is eager to tap the full potential of the Developing Countries Trading Scheme to boost bilateral trade.
A statement from the British High Commission, Abuja, on Monday quoted Montgomery as saying, “As an independent trading nation, the UK is one of the foremost champions of free, fair, and inclusive trade. The UK’s Developing Countries Trading Scheme harnesses the power of trade to support Nigeria and other emerging economies’ ambition to grow and will boost Nigeria’s non-oil exports.
“As the UK Government, we’re keen to maximise uptake of the DCTS. In this respect, I’m happy that the recently signed Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership will help address underlying export challenges in more detail and thus improve exports and the economic and social well-being of both our nations.”
UK introduced DCTS in June 2023 to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by using a more generous trade preferences scheme than with other trade partners.
He added, “We have an online facility called the Growth Gateway with a team ready to provide technical assistance and help partner agencies and businesses boost two-way trade between Nigeria and the UK.”
Under the scheme, a wide variety of products that are not widely produced in the UK, including food items, such as cocoa, plantains, olive oil, tomatoes and other vegetables, yam, shrimp and prawns, cashew nuts, etc., benefit from lower or zero tariffs.
The scheme sees tariff reductions on over 3,000 products.
Meanwhile, in May, Montgomery disclosed that trade relations between Nigeria and the United Kingdom had reached £7bn.
“Trading by both countries is relatively balanced because the UK exports about £4bn worth of goods and services to Nigeria while Nigeria exports to the UK about £3bn worth of goods,” he said.
The latest trade and investment factsheet from the UK government indicated that total trade in goods and services between the UK and Nigeria was £7.1bn in 2023, an increase of three per cent or £209m from the previous year.
“Of this £7.1bn, total UK exports to Nigeria amounted to £4.2bn, 5.4 per cent higher than 2022 and total UK imports from Nigeria amounted to £2.8bn, 0.3 per cent lower than the previous year,” the report indicated.
Nigeria was the UK’s 38th largest trading partner in 2023, accounting for 0.4 per cent of total UK trade.
SOURCE: PUNCH