The Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku has criticised the United States for imposing higher tariffs on processed commodities that come from Africa and described the action as contradictory.
Whilst the US is subsidising its agricultural sector it chooses to impose tariffs on goods from outside, Dr. Apraku said when he spoke on, “The role of policy and industry” at a day’s seminar on “Propelling Ghana’s Scientific, Technological and Industrial Growth” organised by the Research Staff Association in Accra.
He said the US is subsidising the farmer to a tune of $73billion and turned round to impose barriers so that products from outside did not get access to her market. The Trade Minister says he did not understand why the processed products, instead of the raw materials attract tariffs saying, “the more you process the more you escalate.”
He said until tariffs on agricultural products were systematically reduced, there was no way Ghana could access the US market. Additionally, Dr Apraku reiterated his earlier call that industry needs to add value to its product. He was not happy about the gap between revenue and aid and stressed that the solution lies in Ghanaians themselves to change their living standard.
Dr Apraku’s speech rested on the three pillars of sustaining industrial development, strengthening the agricultural sector and also adding value to commodities and removing bottlenecks and deficiencies in the industrial field. However, the Trade Minister pointed out that the cog of Ghana’s industrial drive could be propelled if the agro-based sector and the micro, medium and small-scale enterprises were provided with financial support.
Opening the seminar, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Science Mrs Anna Nyamekye, said the council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had a significant role to play in the country’s social and economic development. She said CSIR’s technology could enhance national productivity.
Mrs Nyamekye said that for 45 years Ghana had been waging war against poverty by carrying out different programmes but regretted that the war had been won. She, therefore, called for the injection of more funds into science and technology so that the expectations of eradicating poverty be met.
