Ghana to benefit from zero duty on exports to UK in new trade deal post Brexit

Following the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, Ghana is expected to benefit from a zero duty on all exports as well as a quota free market access.

This is according to some of the proposals under the new trade deal being discussed by the Ghanaian Embassy and the United Kingdom officials, JoyBusiness reports.

Adam Afriyie, the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy speaking to reporters said the UK is now looking at a bilateral trade deal that will be signed to help facilitate the movement of goods and services without tariffs and quotas.

“We’re now looking at Ghana as equal partners and this will be a proper bilateral trade deal that will be signed and it won’t be overly favouring the UK or Ghana but it will just facilitate the movement of goods and services without tariffs or quotas between our nations,” he stated.

“Clearly there will be a huge influx of goods but there will be discussions around them but quite frankly this is not going to be like it was 50 years ago, this is very different and Ghana is going to be an equal partner with Britain and that’s how we’re discussing the situation,” Adam Afriyie explained.

Adam Afriyie added that the existing trade partnership Ghana has with the UK, has already yielded some tremendous results.

“The exports from Ghana to the UK are already increasing enormously with our current trade partnership arrangement and I can see those figures doubling, tripling and quadrupling if we have a reasonable bilateral agreement but this a two way street because there’s been a nervousness about the UK having an advantage over Ghana, the only advantage the UK will be seeking is to invest their businesses and money into Ghana,” he concluded.

At the just ended UK-Africa summit last month in London, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Ghana's President Akufo-Addo signed a pre-financing agreement between the UK and Ghana for the construction of a £40 million new terminal at the Kumasi Airport.

President Akufo-Addo at the summit also rang the bell to kick off the new partnership between the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) in a move to help develop some of the capital market’s infrastructure to sustain and deepen the financial market as well as move to other emerging market status.