Company profile : Trade Operations, Trade Policy Unit, Department for Business

EU DUTY SUSPENSIONS & QUOTAS SCHEME

UK business’s can apply for a suspension of import duty if the raw materials, components or semi-finished products it imports from outside the EU are not manufactured (or manufactured in sufficient quantities) within the EU. A duty suspension allows unlimited imports duty free whilst a quota allows a limited number of goods in duty-free.

The point of the Scheme is to lower costs for EU manufacturers so that they can compete against imports from outside the EU. The scheme is not at the expense of EU component manufacturers though as it can only be used by an EU manufacturer when there is no EU manufacturing of a component.

This is a very simple scheme with few rules. The two key rules are:

Once in force, a duty suspension or quota can be used by any EU manufacturer – not just the original applicant. There are two “rounds” of the scheme each year beginning on 15 March and 15 September.