UK International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Photo: PA)

The DCTS covers 65 countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas including some of the poorest countries in the world. This extension is on top of the thousands of products which developing countries already export to the UK duty-free and will mean that 99% of goods imported from Africa will enter the UK duty free.

Trevelyan said that the UK Government is honoring a commitment to autonomy on trade policy made in the campaign to bring the UK out of the EU. According to her, British businesses can expect for new simpler, lower-cost processes, designed to encourage companies to import goods from developing countries.