Ghana to host two conferences on trade and investment

Ghana is to host two trade meetings with the United States in July that would positively influence trade relations between the two countries.

The first is the Second Meeting of the Council of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), which would be held on 10 ? 11 July. The second one is the first ever seminar on the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) to be held on 11 ? 12 July.

Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, told a press conference in Accra on Monday that the meetings would mark the importance the two countries attached to trade with each other. Ghana is hosting the meetings as one of the few countries in Sub-Sahara Africa to have an agreement with the US on the development of trade and investment relations, he said.

The TIFA aims at developing and enhancing trade and investment relations between Ghana and the US and it derives its existence from an article of the agreement, which established Ghana-US Council as the apex body to oversee the setting of targets.

Dr Apraku said the objectives of TIFA included the need to enhance friendship and the spirit of co-operation, to develop further both countries' international trade and economic inter-relations, to resolve any trade and investment problems amicably and to establish a bilateral mechanism for encouraging the liberalisation of trade and investment between the two partner nations.

On AGOA, Dr Apraku said, it was the first ever seminar to be held in an Anglophone West African country and it would be on the theme: "Maximising the Benefits Of AGOA In West Africa."

Dr Apraku said due to the success of similar meetings held in Uganda and Cameroon, "I have no doubt that this seminar will also be a great success". He said about 400 participants would attend the meeting from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia and urged Ghanaian businessmen to register to participate in the event.