Treasury opens bidding process for first seven post-Brexit Freeports
From today, the Treasury will start accepting bids from cities and towns across England for the first seven Freeports, which are to be created in 2021. Ultimately, the government aims to establish 10 Freeports across the UK, the Treasury confirmed this morning.
Areas given Freeport status will be given a range of tax reliefs, including on purchasing land, constructing or renovating buildings, investing in new plant and machinery assets and on employer national insurance contributions.
Moreover, a firm can import goods into a Freeport without paying tariffs, process them into a final good and then either pay a tariff on goods sold into the domestic market, or export the final goods without paying UK tariffs, according to a statement released today.
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Post-Brexit trade
The initiative is made possible when the country leaves the EU’s single market and customs union on 31 December of this year.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said: “Our new Freeports will create national hubs for trade, innovation and commerce, levelling up communities across the UK, creating new jobs, and turbo-charging our economic recovery.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said: “As we embrace our new opportunities as an independent trading nation, we want to deliver lasting prosperity to the British people and Freeports will be key to delivering this.”
“Our new Freeports will create national hubs for trade, innovation and commerce, levelling up communities across the UK, creating new jobs, and turbo-charging our economic recovery,” Sunak added.
Creating Freeports in the UK has been a long discussed prospect since the country voted in favour of leaving the EU in 2016.