Is Ghana’s trade liberalization policy leading us towards an economic cliff?

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• Kwame Antwi-Frempong. 10 years ago

  Great article. I sgree with most of the points you raised.

  Great article. I sgree with most of the points you raised.

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• Kojo T 10 years ago

  Good article but trade liberalization did not start 5 years agao. NPP did worse and some of us wrote against it. That is why I am rooting for the CPP to stem the tide and remove trade barriers with other African countries. We ...
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  Good article but trade liberalization did not start 5 years agao. NPP did worse and some of us wrote against it. That is why I am rooting for the CPP to stem the tide and remove trade barriers with other African countries. We need a United African market as we cannot do these in isolation. Our borders cannot be policed

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• Azaato 10 years ago

  Brilliant!! This is the way comment on policy issues should structured, critique with along with the suggestions of needs to be done. Not empty rhetoric,,accusations and ethnic-bashing. Come again, Kwame Antwi-Frempong. I am ...
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  Brilliant!! This is the way comment on policy issues should structured, critique with along with the suggestions of needs to be done. Not empty rhetoric,,accusations and ethnic-bashing. Come again, Kwame Antwi-Frempong. I am with you hundred per cent on this one!! I wish you were in Ghana, I could link up with you for some co-operation

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• micky 10 years ago

  Article starts by saying that five years ago businesses could borrow to epxand? In ghana? Five years ago Interest rates were not much different from what they are now. The finance/credit sector of the economy is weak. the spr ...
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  Article starts by saying that five years ago businesses could borrow to epxand? In ghana? Five years ago Interest rates were not much different from what they are now. The finance/credit sector of the economy is weak. the spread betwn deposits and credit rates by the Banks is insane. Banks/financial insitutions are making supernormal profits. Current high interest rates are not attributable to government (in)action only. Granted, government domestic borrowing does affect availability of credit for private sector.
  
  Trade/market Liberalisation did not start with current government. Whereas there are some advantages to trade liberalisation, mass unregulated and wholesale importation of anything and everything as currently pertains in Ghana is bad for the local economy.
  
  Ghanaians also have a penchant/taste and preference for foreign goods/products. It is not uncommon to hear people say 'oh this is from europe, usa etc'. We as a citizenry should curb this.
  
  cost per unit of utilities in Ghana is one of the cheapest in the subregion.

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• Owura kofi 10 years ago

  Great article. Sadly Ghanaian politicians and officials seem dazed about how to develop the economy.
  
  NO country on this planet has embraced trade liberalization so much as Ghana. Every country have trade restrictions to pr ...
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  Great article. Sadly Ghanaian politicians and officials seem dazed about how to develop the economy.
  
  NO country on this planet has embraced trade liberalization so much as Ghana. Every country have trade restrictions to protect local industries. From Australia to United States of America. Why are there Japanese, and Korean branch plants in the USA, Canada and other developed countries- producing cars, electronics etc?
  
  The President of Ghana goes to World Econ Forum and laments that Mining companies in Ghana are stopping his gov't from passing a tax law which would benefit the country.
  Oh,(mobo)pathetic people. How can you solve unemployment, inflation, high interest rates etc, if over 90 percent of everything we consume in Ghana is imported? We have a long way to go.

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• T Acheampong 10 years ago

  An open economy such as Ghana’s over-liberalized trade regime without the necessary support mechanisms for local industries to compete at even the regional level will eventual spell doom and further exacerbate our precariou ...
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  An open economy such as Ghana’s over-liberalized trade regime without the necessary support mechanisms for local industries to compete at even the regional level will eventual spell doom and further exacerbate our precarious trade deficit and current account balances. This is because of the massive amounts of foreign exchange that we’ll have to spend to bring these finished goods (not even intermediate goods for production) into the country at ridiculously low prices. The pressure on the Cedi is partly as a result of these over liberalized trade policies. For example, Ghanaian importers need to convert their Cedi to dollars, an intermediary currency before further exchanging it for the Chinese Renminbi. This increases the dollar demand as the Chinese import trade grows. Sino-Ghana trade reached US$5.43 billion in 2012, up 56.5 percent from 2011 figure of US$3.47 billion. The net effect of this has been the deterioration of our current account balance which only stands at about 2.6 months of import (US$4.5 billion) [MPC Report, Nov 2013].
  
  The only way to deal with these effects or at least stem its impact on our reserves whilst at the same time promoting mass employment and consumption of local produce is adopting some of the points you enumerated above –e.g. emphasis on technology transfer and the introduction of quasi levies and other ‘sin’ taxes to artificially raise the prices on for example the useless imported fruit juices, etc to at least bring them to parity with local alternatives in the short term. But this needs to be tied to a wider industrial and trade policy which is anchored on the active promotion and consumption of QUALITY Made in Ghana goods supported by a powerful value chain in the cottage, SMEs and large scale enterprises. The adoption of best practice production standards should be their linchpin such that long term comparative and locational advantages can translate into efficiencies of scale and scope thus reducing prices, and resulting in net positive consumer welfare. The government on the other hand should actively work to rein in on its borrowing on the domestic market which crowds out the private sector making loans ridiculously expensive. Imagine if we could retain just US$2 billion annually to invest in our local markets. That’s almost 50% what we spent trading with China not factoring in our traditional trade partners in the West. Now imagine again the direct and indirect impacts of these in terms of quality jobs created and enhanced welfare for the many families which rely on these proceeds.
  
  Ghana must work again! Good evening folks!

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• Kwadjoe, London 10 years ago

  The problem is not trade liberalisation, It ia what we do with trade as a country. We must trade our way into development. Some of our businessmen do not carry out their business by the book but use 'connections'.We cannot ha ...
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  The problem is not trade liberalisation, It ia what we do with trade as a country. We must trade our way into development. Some of our businessmen do not carry out their business by the book but use 'connections'.We cannot have technological transfer without trade liberalisation.

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