Ghana/US poise to address trade challenges/imbalances

Accra, Jan 25, GNA - Ghana and United States have agreed to collaborate to make trade practical and an effective instrument to address the infrastructure needs of developing countries and enhance their production capacity and competitiveness.

Both countries are therefore expected to identify key and priority sectors to focus attention on as well as map out modalities that would improve trade relations for their mutual benefit.

These agreements were reached at the just ended fifth US-Ghana Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council Meeting in Washington DC which discussed issues that bordered on business climate, infrastructure, and trade capacity building and financing framework. Making Ghana's opening statement, Ms. Gifty Ohene-Konadu, Ghana's Deputy Trade Minister noted that the two countries witnessed significant trade increase in areas such as wood, edible vegetables, foods products and petroleum based products last year.

She said an increase of 11.4 percent for the eleven months of 2007 was recorded from 164 to 187 million dollars in those areas mentioned above.

The TIFA Council meeting was held with the aim of uniting US - Ghana cooperation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) with particular reference to the Doha Development Agenda and improving the Business Climate.

The Deputy Minister said the project, which would last up to 2015 was aimed at meeting its target and other USAID funded programmes and projects such as the Trade and Investment Programme for a Competitive Export Economy (TIPCEE), the West African Trade Hub, and the Trade Sector support Programme (TSP) that would assist Ghana to achieve the middle income status.

Ms Ohene-Konadu announced that the US had also pledged to work with Ghana on a model that could be used to identify areas of opportunities for guarantees from Banks to secure investment funding for energy related infrastructure projects.

The TSP is a five-year implementation blue print trade policy which is supported financially by the World Bank under a pooled funding arrangement from 2006 to 2010.

She said Ghana had called for US collaboration in areas of rail transportation, aviation, telecom and energy to address challenges facing Ghana in terms of infrastructure. "Ghana was willing to cooperate with the US and the G33 to arrive at a consensus on the number of products to be designated as special," she said.

Ms Ohene-Konadu said Ghana's current stable economy ought to be sustained and observed that TIFA has established clear channels of communication that would enhance the cordial relations between US and Ghana to the implementation of high impact sustainable projects for mutual benefit. She called for US's support to reduce trade distorting domestic support and deeper tariff cuts, which would create meaningful market access opportunities for Ghana in agriculture trade. Addressing the meeting also, Ms Pamela Bridgewater, U.S Ambassador to Ghana mentioned that the United States had provided support in terms of horticultural export to Ghana under the initiative of West Africa Trade Hub (WATH) and the Trade and Investment Programme for a Competitive Export Economy (TIPCEE).