Back trade petitions with data at firm, industry levels - GITC

Maxwell Apenkro, Deputy Chief Commercial Officer of the Ghana International Trade Commission (GITC), has asked industry players seeking to file petition over unfair trade practices to back their requests with data at the firm and industry levels.

He said the inclusion of such data made it easy for the Commission to process the petitions for well informed recommendations.

“The game is actually evidence and evidence is also rooted in data…we tell firms and industries to work on your data. As for trade level data, we have customs; we have other institutions to get access to trade level data," he said.

“What really restrain our processes is firms giving us their firm-level data. Because we are not with you in your company or firm, if you don’t tell us your production levels, we wouldn’t be able to know,” he stated.

Mr Apenkro was speaking at a Customs controls and regulations forum organised by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) under the theme, “promoting fair market practices that stimulate economic growth”.

He highlighted the stages of filing a petition, which include pre-filing assistance, verification process, initiation and questionnaire, production of staff report, launch and publication of full investigation, entry of appearance leading to hearings, final determination and presentation of recommendation to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The forum is among other things aimed at promoting fair market practices, highlighting the negative effects of substandard goods and providing platform for government institutions to engage investor community on policies and procedures.

The programme also sought to gauge the expectations, experiences and challenges of investors while soliciting feedback to guide future polices and legislations.

Mr Yaw Afriyie, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), said the Centre was working on introducing reforms to the current investment legislations to eliminate barriers for business, and promote investment based on the input of core stakeholder groups.

He said collaboration and building linkages among core stakeholders would help streamline business processes and collectively impact the prosperity of the nation.

“The investor community will, therefore, see progress on the frontiers if strategies for streamlining customs procedures are compliant especially with government regulation and that customs valuations and classifications are properly made, including valuation methods and classification systems,” he said.

Other public institutions that participated in the forum were the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Ghana Shippers Authority, Food and Drugs Authority and the Ghana Standards Authority.