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New US Tariffs: What UK Exporters Need to Know
US Trade Policy · Regulatory Update New US Tariffs Just Landed — Here’s Why It’s Not the Emergency the Headlines Make It Sound Like If
24 July 2026
Monthly Trade News · June 2026
June 2026 was dominated by one date: 15 July. That's when the UK–India trade deal enters into force — but it was far from the only change to land this month. Steel import costs jumped on 1 July, a 60-year-old paper customs process went digital, and HMRC moved the clock forward on one of the biggest reforms to hit importers in a generation.
This is our monthly roundup of the news that matters to UK importers and exporters — not just what changed, but exactly what you need to do about it. Here are the five stories from June you can't afford to miss.
On 17 June 2026, the UK and Indian governments confirmed that the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will enter into force on 15 July 2026. Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle urged businesses to use the run-up to register and prepare. With the date now days away, anyone not yet ready needs to move.
The single number that matters most to UK exporters: India's average tariff on UK goods falls from roughly 15% to 3%. Scotch whisky duties drop from 150% to 75% on day one and taper to 40% over a decade; car tariffs fall from over 100% to 10% within a quota; and many cosmetics and other goods lose duties of up to 22% either immediately or over time. For importers, the UK liberalises 99% of its tariff lines, opening cheaper access to Indian textiles, footwear, food and more.
But here's the point most coverage skips: none of these savings apply automatically. The preference has to be claimed — and who claims it depends on which direction you're trading.
The preference is claimed in India, by your Indian customer, when they import your goods. They cannot claim it without a valid origin declaration from you. So your role as the UK exporter is to self-certify the origin of your goods correctly — and to do that, you must register with HMRC before you make your first origin declaration. Registration is free and done once, but it must happen before your first shipment, not after. Without your declaration, your customer pays full Most Favoured Nation (MFN) duty instead of the preferential rate, making your goods less competitive in the Indian market. You'll need your EORI number to register — search GOV.UK for "Register to complete origin declarations under the UK–India Free Trade Agreement."
For each consignment, you then complete an origin declaration using the prescribed Annex 3B template and send it to both your customer and the customs authority of India from your registered email address. Keep all origin records for at least five years — HMRC can request them or verify your claims by visiting your premises.
When you source goods from India, you are the one who claims the preferential rate at import. Review your commodity codes against the UK–India tariff schedule to confirm whether your goods qualify, understand your origin position, and make sure your supplier can provide compliant paperwork before you claim. To claim, your import documentation must include an Annex 3B origin declaration from your Indian supplier, along with their Importer Exporter Code (IEC). If your supplier can't or won't provide a compliant declaration, you'll pay standard MFN rates regardless of the deal — so confirm your suppliers are ready well before 15 July. If you currently import under the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), review which arrangement now gives you the better outcome for each product.
This is a deal with real money attached — but only for businesses that get the origin and documentation right from day one. We've published a detailed companion guide covering registration, rules of origin, origin declarations and the DCTS transition step by step: read UK–India trade deal July 2026: what traders must do now.
For the official detail, see the UK–India Trade Deal collection on GOV.UK.
If your business imports steel, or manufactures using steel as an input, the cost landscape changed overnight. The previous UK steel safeguard measure expired on 30 June, and a significantly tighter regime replaced it on 1 July.
The new system cuts tariff-free import quotas by 60% compared to the old safeguard, and applies a 50% duty on any steel imported above quota — double the previous 25% out-of-quota rate. Quotas operate as tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on a first-come, first-served basis through HMRC, across 20 broad categories of steel products. Because allocation is first-come, first-served, once a category's quota runs out in a given quarter, every subsequent import from that country attracts the full 50% — even before the annual cap is reached. Ukraine-origin steel remains exempt, with existing UK–Ukraine preferential arrangements continuing.
First, confirm whether your products fall within the 20 affected categories — covering hot-rolled sheets and strips, coated sheets, tin mill products, plates, bars and wire rod, hollow sections, pipes and welded tubes and more, each tied to specific commodity codes. Check yours against the official UK steel trade measure guidance on GOV.UK.
Second, model your exposure. Compare your historic import volumes against the new quota allocations for your specific categories and source countries. Where contracts are price-fixed or long-term, build tariff-risk or cost-sharing clauses in now, before an out-of-quota charge lands.
Third, check the transitional relief. Steel imported under contracts finalised before 14 March 2026 is exempt from the 50% out-of-quota surcharge between 1 July and 30 September 2026. If you qualify, get your contract-date evidence ready to present on your import declaration.
Fourth, set up quota monitoring with your customs agent or freight forwarder. A 50% duty is a supply chain decision, not a line item — and businesses that fail to model it will watch it erode margins across every product line that uses steel.
This is precisely the kind of change where getting it wrong is expensive and the right structure saves real money. If you'd like a tailored assessment of your quota exposure, customs procedures and duty-mitigation options, our export consultancy team can help.
From 1 June 2026, the ATA Carnet — the "passport for goods" that lets businesses move samples, professional equipment and exhibition goods temporarily across borders without paying duty — went digital. Thirty countries and territories activated the eATA system that day, including all 27 EU member states, Norway, Switzerland and the UK. If your business attends trade fairs, sends teams abroad with equipment, or ships commercial samples, this affects you directly.
Instead of a paper booklet posted to you, you now receive a Carnet number, Carnet ID and Carnet PIN, which you enter into the ATA Carnet app to download the carnet to a smartphone. At the border, customs officers scan a QR code in the app to process the movement, and you get a notification once they finalise it. This is a soft launch, not a hard switch: paper and digital carnets run side by side during the transition, and customs authorities are applying a flexible approach to avoid border delays. The ICC aims to complete the global move to fully digital carnets by the end of 2027.
Download the app first — search "ATA Carnet App" in the Apple App Store or Google Play. If you handle high carnet volumes, ask your issuing chamber about the desktop facility. Next, review upcoming movements: any temporary export to the EU, Norway or Switzerland uses the digital process from day one. For mixed itineraries that cross both digital and non-digital countries, your chamber issues both formats, with the front cover showing which to use where.
Crucially, the US hasn't joined yet — it's expected in the second half of 2026 — so journeys involving the US still need paper. Check authorisations too: a physical letter of authority on company letterhead is still required when someone other than the carnet holder travels with the goods, with electronic upload expected over Summer 2026. The application route is unchanged — you still apply through your local Chamber of Commerce — but make sure everyone who crosses a border for you knows not to expect a paper booklet. Full official guidance sits on the ATA Carnet pages on GOV.UK.
On 23 June 2026, the Treasury confirmed that the £135 low-value import customs duty relief will end on 1 October 2028 — six months earlier than the previously announced March 2029 date. The reason: low-value import volumes have more than tripled in two years. This matters to any business importing goods valued at £135 or less, selling low-value goods into the UK from overseas, or operating a marketplace handling third-party cross-border sales.
Under current rules, goods valued at £135 or less claim full customs duty relief; VAT is due, but no duty. From 1 October 2028, that duty relief disappears. The threshold itself isn't vanishing — it's being repurposed. Below £135, goods move through a new low-value import system HMRC is building; above £135, goods continue through standard CDS arrangements. The threshold will mark which system you use, not whether you pay duty. The government estimates around 600 million low-value consignments entered the UK in 2024 — roughly 1.6 million a day — and frames the reform around fairness to high-street and bulk-importing UK businesses that already pay full duty.
October 2028 isn't far off for anyone who needs to reprice, renegotiate supplier terms or rebuild customs processes. Map which product lines currently rely on the £135 relief, find each commodity code, check the MFN duty rate on the UK Trade Tariff, and calculate the landed-cost impact once duty applies — for some lines it's minor, for others it erases the margin on cross-border sales. Review your marketplace and supplier agreements: the government is minded to make marketplaces responsible for collecting duty, and overseas sellers without a UK presence will likely need a UK fiscal representative. Track the consultation outcomes on GOV.UK, and don't leave it until 2028 — the businesses caught out by the 2021 VAT changes were the ones who waited. You can follow the official detail on the low-value imports reform consultation on GOV.UK.
Unlike the four changes above, the UK–EU picture is still unfolding rather than fixed — but it carries real implications, so we're flagging it as a developing story to follow.
The most commercially significant strand is the new UK–EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement. The government plans to legislate in late 2026 with the aim of bringing it into force in 2027, estimating it could add up to £5.1 billion a year to the economy in the long run. For food and drink businesses — the sector hit hardest by post-Brexit border friction — a working SPS deal would cut checks, paperwork and cost on GB–EU trade. In parallel, 2026 brings the first formal review of the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) since it took effect, which could touch rules of origin, customs cooperation and regulatory recognition.
You can't act on the SPS deal yet — it isn't law. But use the time to pressure-test your current GB–EU processes: are your border costs and documentary requirements fully understood and built into your pricing? Food and drink businesses should engage their trade bodies now, since those organisations are feeding into the SPS design that will determine how much friction actually disappears. And make sure your team genuinely understands the current TCA rules of origin — if the review changes them, you can only spot what's changed if you know the starting point.
The dates from this month's stories to put in your diary:
What we're watching for future editions:
Five major changes in a single month, and one thread runs through all of them: the businesses that benefit are the ones that understand the rules early and act on them. The ones that struggle find out after a shipment has already cost them more than it should have.
That's exactly why we publish this roundup every month. If the UK–India deal, the steel measures or the low-value reform affects your business, two things can help right now: our export and import training courses give your team the practical know-how to apply these rules correctly, and our export consultancy service provides tailored, business-specific advice when the stakes are high.
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US Trade Policy · Regulatory Update New US Tariffs Just Landed — Here’s Why It’s Not the Emergency the Headlines Make It Sound Like If
Classifying sets for customs is one of the areas where classification disputes come up repeatedly, because the General Interpretative Rules (GIR) require you to work
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