BRITISH consumers are set to see a raft of cheaper household appliances and foods as well as enjoy more choice under a new post-Brexit tariff regime unveiled by the UK Government.

The Department for International Trade said the new regime - to be called the UK Global Tariff - will see duties axed on around £62 billion worth of imports while tariffs will also be protected for industries such as agriculture, automotive and fishing.

Items such as dishwashers, freezers and even Christmas trees will see zero tariffs under the regime while the Government said cooking products such as cocoa and baking powder would also be levy free.

The UK will also see thousands of tariff variations on products scrapped, including more than 13,000 tariff variations on products including biscuits, waffles, pizzas, quiches, confectionery and spreads.

The country’s new global tariff will replace the European Union's external one on January 1, at the end of the transition period, and will see 60 per cent of trade come in tariff-free under the plan, compared with 47% currently.

"Our new Global Tariff will benefit UK consumers and households by cutting red tape and reducing the cost of thousands of everyday products,” declared Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary.

"With this straightforward approach, we are backing UK industry and helping businesses overcome the unprecedented economic challenges posed by coronavirus," she added.

The department pointed out it would maintain a 10% tariff on cars as well as those on agricultural products such as lamb, beef, and poultry to protect British industry.

The Government’s move came as the UK-EU trade talks have hit an impasse with the latest round of talks described as “tetchy”.

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, claimed the success of the forthcoming fourth round of Brexit trade talks rested on the EU recognising the UK as a "sovereign equal".

He made clear the UK Government remained committed to securing a deal with a free trade agreement "at its core" and it looked forward to talks resuming in June.

However, the Scot warned it remained difficult to reach a mutually beneficial agreement while the "EU maintains such an ideological approach", something Brussels believes Westminster is also pursuing.

Responding to an Urgent Question in the Commons, Mr Gove told MPs: "Agreement is possible if flexibility is shown and the agreements that we seek are of course built on the precedents of the agreements that the EU has reached with other sovereign nations."

His words came as the UK published the draft legal texts shared with the European Commission in a bid to “facilitate discussions”. However, some saw the move as piling more pressure on Brussels.

Earlier this week, it was suggested the EU was preparing to blink on the issue of fishing rights, which Whitehall has made clear is a deal-breaker. The bloc, led by France’s Emmanuel Macron, wants to keep the current quotas but Britain intends to take control as a sovereign coastal state come what may by the end of the transition period in December, making clear there will be no extension.

It is expected that the impasse will only be broken when national leaders get involved ahead of the crunch stock-take at the end of next month.

Rachel Reeves for Labour raised concerns about the threat to the Northern Ireland peace process from the threat of imposing checks on some goods crossing the Irish Sea from the mainland.

Mr Gove replied: "Peace in Northern Ireland, she's absolutely right, is critical and we will shortly be publishing a framework document on how we intend to implement the protocol in order to ensure that we have unfettered access for goods from Northern Ireland into Great Britain and we preserve the gains from the peace process."

The SNP’s Pete Wishart said: "This Government is doing nothing than playing political games with the futures of millions of people by pursuing this anti-EU agenda at all costs."

Meanwhile, David Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, in a four-page letter to his EU counterpart Michel Barnier, highlighted a number of areas where his team thought Brussels was not acting in good faith during the talks.

He said the UK found it "perplexing" that the EU was continuing to make "unbalanced, and unprecedented" demands but argued "rapid" progress could be made if the bloc was willing to offer terms similar to those found in free trade agreements (FTA) it had already ratified with third countries such as Canada and Japan.

The Government said, overall, some £62bn of imports would be levy free, including £30bn on imports to the supply chain.

The tariff schedule will apply to all countries that the UK does not have a trade agreement with.

The CBI business body said the new tariff regime gave firms "much-needed clarity".

But Josh Hardie, its Deputy Director General, said: "Businesses will need time to assess the detail and ensuring there's a system in place to address issues as they arise will be critical.

"Crucially, firms' number one priority is for the Government to strike a deal with the EU and ensuring continuity of existing trade deals."

Stephen Phipson, Chief Executive of manufacturer's organisation Make UK, said the regime represented a “better balance between consumer and producer interests than earlier proposals", which were to increase the percentage of tariff-free products from 47% to 87%.

He joined the CBI in calling for a "comprehensive trade agreement with the EU" by the year-end deadline.