TIGA, the trade association representing the video games industry, has today responded to the Department for International Trade’s Consultation on the UK Global Tariff.
Following the UK’s departure from the EU, the Government is developing a new UK Most Favoured Nation (MFN) tariff schedule which will enter into force on 1 January 2021.
To inform the development of this bespoke tariff regime, the Government launched a four-week public consultation on the UK Global Tariff policy, beginning on 6 February 2020 and closing on 5 March 2020 at 23:59 GMT. The Government encourages everyone with an interest to take part and provide their views.
As part of the consultation, the Government is seeking views on:
- simplifying and tailoring the tariff to suit UK businesses and households, such as removing tariffs of less than 2.5% and rounding tariffs down to the nearest 2.5%, 5% or 10% band;
- removing tariffs on key inputs to production which could reduce costs for UK manufacturers; and
- removing tariffs where the UK has zero or limited domestic production which could help to lower prices for consumers.
Throughout the consultation, TIGA has recommended that the current system of no tariffs or quotas on video games remains the same. Free trade in video games already exists and is crucial to the continued growth of the UK’s video games industry and the success of small games developers in particular. Therefore, the UK should ensure that the current no-tariff arrangement for video games is maintained in a new trade deal.
The link to the consultation page can be found here.