The new UK-Japan comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) will introduce more flexible rules for textile products, allowing clothing producers to undergo a single process in the United Kingdom, the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) said recently. The UK department for international trade will publish joint guidance with Japan on the ‘importer’s knowledge’ article.
The guidance will offer greater clarity and predictability for companies on this provision. This change may allow high-value producers of goods including knitwear, suits, gloves and coats to increase their exports to Japan.
The UK and Japan have agreed to measures that make the UK-Japan CEPA easy and predictable to use. For example, the UK-Japan CEPA allows self-certification of origin, which means that UK and Japanese exporters do not need a certificate from their customs authority, UKFT said in a press release.
Under tariff preference, a clothing producer could sew together imported fabrics into a coat, and then export the final product to Japan under tariff preference, as long as 50 per cent of the inputs are sourced domestically. Under the EPA, clothing producers are required to undertake two or three processes in the United Kingdom, even if they sourced most of their inputs domestically.
This change may allow high-value producers of goods, including knitwear, suits, gloves and coats, to increase their exports to Japan.
