UK opens consultation over post-Brexit subsidy system

LONDON: The UK has opened consultation on its proposed approach for establishing a bespoke nation-wide subsidy control regime to replace the state aid regime of the European Union (EU), the government said. The new subsidy control system will provide "more flexible and tailored financial support to businesses" and will be "the longterm replacement for the EU's prescriptive state aid regime", Xinhua news agency quoted the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy as saying in a statement on Wednesday.

Under the fresh system, local authorities, public bodies and the devolved administrations "will be empowered to decide if they can issue taxpayer subsidies by following a set of UK-wide principles", said the Department. The system will ensure Britain to comply with its international obligations "under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, the UKEU Trade and Cooperation Agreement and other free trade agreements", according to the statement.

The system "will ensure that subsidies do not unduly distort competition within the UK's internal market", said the statement. The state aid has been one of the sticking points in the Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels before they reached a trade deal late last month. The clashes over the issue were resolved in the EU-UK trade deal, with Britain agreeing to set up an "independent authority" to monitor subsidy decisions, the Financial Times said in a report.

Nubian ibexes walk in a street during a national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in the southern Israeli city of Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev desert on February 4.