Ghana's bilateral trade relations

Accra, Sept. 29, GNA - The Ministry of Trade and Industry, on Tuesday, organized a workshop to educate stakeholders on the advantages of Ghana's bilateral trading arrangements to Ghanaian exporters. Addressing a stakeholders' meeting in Accra, Mr. Appiah Donyina, Acting Director of Import and Export Division of Ministry of Trade and Industry, expressed worry that though the country currently enjoyed preferential access to most developed countries and regional markets under various trade liberalization schemes, most Ghanaian exporters were not aware of the benefits under the arrangements.

He said trade arrangements such as the Generalized System of Preferences, Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), the Cotonou Agreement and ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme, made it possible for Ghanaian export products to attract lower or zero tariffs thereby giving Ghana a competitive edge over non-beneficiary exporting countries. Mr. Donyina said the Ministry would publish a list of export commodities to aid Ghanaian exporters to take advantage of the provision made under the schemes.

He said there was the need to identify preferential market schemes available to Ghanaians and the main elements of the rules of origin for the export products in order that the local exporter could better understand what was required to qualify as a beneficiary of the schemes. Mr. Donyina said preferential market access scheme was an arrangement made to assist exporters price their products more competitively thereby enabling them to export to markets that they might not be able to enter because of high cost of production. He said it would enable exporters to compete more effectively against exports from other countries.

Mr. Donyina said: "This scheme may help to attract investors from the importing centres who may wish to partner exporters and it can lead to increased production levels and export volumes," he said and urged Ghanaian exporters to take advantage of it. 29 Sept. 09