Yesterday (26 November) was a significant day for the UK government, as UK chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her much anticipated Autumn Budget to Parliament.
There were tax rises, changes to enterprise incentives, new support for apprenticeships and news on both the UK’s carbon border plans and ports.
Tax changes
Reeves set out her latest budget with a raft of announcements on taxes, apprenticeships and other measures.
Tax hikes totalling £26bn bring the overall UK tax burden to an all-time high, with higher taxes on dividends, landlords and homes worth more than £2m, as well as reductions in tax advantages for salary sacrifice schemes.
A freeze in income tax thresholds for three years is predicted to raise £12.7bn by 2030-31.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) analysis predicts that the chancellor’s measures will lead to 0.9% growth in UK exports by 2030. The budget is also predicted to increase the chancellor’s ‘fiscal headroom’ to £21.7bn by the end of the forecast period.
Enterprise incentives
Also included in the announcements was a widening of the eligibility for enterprise incentives, intended to help scale-ups to “attract the talent and the capital they need”. Reeves introduced a new 40% first year allowance for businesses, so firms “can write off more of the cost of their investment upfront”.
Businesses listed in the UK will also gain an exemption from stamp duty, and there will be a call for evidence on how the tax system can better benefit UK entrepreneurs.
The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade will seek to respond to this call for evidence, reflecting the views of its members.
De minimis
The chancellor also announced that, following a consultation, the government will remove the ‘de minimis’ duty and customs relief for low-value imports from March 2029 at the latest.
A new open consultation is being launched, ending on 6 March 2026, seeking “views on certain elements of a new set of customs arrangements for these goods”. You can access and learn more about that consultation here.
To give those affected an opportunity to hear from government officials on the consultation, there will be a webinar on 4 December setting out its “purpose and scope”, as well as “some of the proposals under consideration”. You can register for this webinar here.
Dan Tomlinson, exchequer secretary to the treasury, said that “the government is aware that these new arrangements will require significant adjustments for businesses engaged in low value trade”.
He added that getting the technical details right will call for input from “consumers and businesses of all sizes and all levels of international trading experience – from high-volume traders to small and medium sized businesses”.
Other announcements
An update on the UK’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) also featured in the measures set out at the budget, as the government noted that indirect emissions associated with the production of CBAM goods will be not in scope of CBAM when it is implemented on 1 January 2027.
This, it says, is to “reflect continued support for the Energy Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme”. Indirect emissions will therefore not be included “until 2029 at the earliest”.
Reeves also unveiled £820m in new funding for guaranteed paid work placements for people aged 18-21. This includes a scheme that will make under-25 apprenticeships with SMEs "completely free".
There was an announcement on ports, too, as the government published a policy paper outlining changes to HMRC’s powers to “approve ports and apply approval conditions in secondary legislation”.
It means that “customs infrastructure is available as required at border locations and that the arrangements for its provision are consistent”.
Beyond the budget
The global trade news keeps flowing, as the FT reported that Chinese tech giants are training their AI models abroad to avoid US measures aimed at restricting their development.
The Trump administration has placed export controls on Nvidia’s China-exclusive H20 semiconductor, but Chinese firms are now said to be establishing data centres in Singapore and Malaysia, where they can access high-end Nvidia chips used domestically in the US.
One data centre operator based in Singapore told the FT “it’s an obvious choice to come here” as “you need the best chips to train the most cutting-edge models and it’s all legally compliant”.
Elsewhere in the headlines
- The recent Swiss-US tariff deal has drawn an outcry in Switzerland over the role of executives’ gifts to US president Donald Trump in securing the arrangement
- Large investors have been reacting to the budget, with positive noises on the government’s efforts to meet its fiscal targets but disquiet on growth
- A maritime deal between Lebanon and Cyprus has drawn ire from Turkey
Yesterday in trade
- The Chartered Institute launched a new whitepaper with the Aluminium Federation, designed to help aluminium businesses navigate the complexities of international trade
- Trump faced a raft of negative economic data, with suggestions that his tariffs could be hitting consumer confidence
- A report found the UK economy may be 6-8% smaller than it would have been had the country not left the EU
You can read more on those stories here.
