International Trade
Plymouth and South Devon Freeport benefits from a range of customs measures, allowing imports to enter our custom sites with simplified customs documentation and delayed payment of tariffs if selling on to the UK market or zero tariffs if selling overseas.
Freeport customs sites are outside UK customs boundaries. This means that goods brought into the Plymouth and South Devon Freeport customs sites are conceptually still ‘off shore’.
To find out more about the Freeport’s Customs Offer please click here.
2 to 3 new foreign direct investments each year *
Freeports are expected to create national hubs for trade and investment and DfT statistics show that around 95% of all import and export tonnage is transported by sea.
Plymouth is an international port trading mainly with continental Europe, but there is a growing number of ports further afield starting to trade with Plymouth, including ports in Africa and South America.
We are committed to working with our port operators at Millbay Docks, and the Cattewater, where the Cattedown, Corporation, Turnchapel and Victoria wharves are located to optimise our port infrastructure and ensure we have the port capacity we will need.
Our Freeport aims to further support and enhance already well-established short sea shipping routes which, as well as having the obvious benefit of reducing traffic congestion and highways maintenance costs, has huge decarbonisation potential and will be at the forefront of the city’s net zero plans.
The Freeport site at Langage offers good connectivity with the strategic road network and could act as a local hub for goods imported through the whole of the Port of Plymouth, reducing pressure on the larger ports and reducing the duration of road haulage operations.
* expected outcome of the Plymouth and South Devon Freeport