The 2012 Vice Presidential Candidate of the Convention People’s Party has strongly kicked against the decision by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and some key stakeholders to burn seized foreign textiles bearing trademarks of local manufacturers.
“The whole approach is more like victimizing innocent women who usually just become victims as a result of mandated government and institutions’ inability to perform their duties well,” she stressed.
Nana Akosua Frimponmaa II is of the view that the woman with those few cloths is not the person who printed and brought these cloths into the country. “I expect a proactive government to be able to do a proper research and find the culprits and if they cannot do that they should stop harassing the poor market women in the Country”.
She asked: “How do the cloths get into the country, don’t they go through the borders, and are the customs officers no more checking items that are allowed to enter the country again?. Burning these seized cloths is inhuman.”
According to the CPP 2012 vice presidential candidate, going to the open market to seize those cloths is not the solution, but rather the zeal to deal with the custom officers who on their part fail to prevent these items entering the market.
“Why is it that when they seized these cloths from the market women, they burn them? Why are they not burning all the luxurious cars that are seized at the ports? How come, its only the cloth that get burnt in the open for everyone to see? If every seized item is supposed to be burnt, then they should burn those cars that they seize and later distribute among themselves.”
She said, destroying the goods will not deter people from smuggling the cloths into the country because of its weak borders and irresponsible security officers.
“I think the best thing to do now is to sit down and do a complete overhaul of the system and take a critical look at our trade policy. Until this is done properly we will continue to battle with the same challenge year in and out.”
