Overhaul trade policies - Employers Association

The country must review inimical trade and investment policies if it is to salvage the “dwindling opportunities” of indigenous businesses, the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) has said.

Such trade policies that encourage unfair competition kill industries and jobs, and sometimes leave consumers worse off must go, the GEA said at its annual general meeting in Accra last week.

“Ghana needs to critically re-examine its trade and investment policies, especially Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) as well as other protocols which have compelled us to open our markets to the influx of all kinds of goods and services while dwindling the opportunities of local enterprises to sell their products locally, let alone export their products to other markets,” Mr. Terence Darko, President of the GEA, said.

The country in 2007 initialled the interim EPA to allow 80 percent of European goods into the Ghanaian market duty-free and quota-free, while Ghana continues to have 100 percent access to the European Union (EU) market for all goods except sugar and rice.

However, unequal production capacities have limited the full participation of local companies in this trade agreement, while EU goods and products into the country have continued to soar.

Mr. Darko said industries currently face enormous challenges that require a concerted effort to addresses.

“While the inflation rate continues to hover around single digits and pre-teen figures, high interest rates and high forex rates continue to take a heavy toll on the cost of doing business.

“There is an urgent need to balance our monetary and fiscal policies to encourage investment attraction and give businesses a reasonable degree of space to expand and retool their operations," he said.

In 2012, the cedi was notoriously volatile -- losing 17.5 percent to the dollar. Though the currency is trading at a more stable rate than last year, it has suffered intermittent volatility in 2013 -- shedding more than 6 percent since beginning of year. This weakness has triggered inflation, which rose to a three-year high of 11.8 percent in July.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recommended the BoG target reserves of around US$8.1billion to cushion the economy against external shocks. Reserves are currently around US$5.8billion, enough to pay for three months of imports.

The share of manufacturing in Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has also been shrinking, falling from 10.2 percent to 6.9 percent between 2006 and 2012 as counterfeit and foreign imports have rocked the textiles, poultry, pharmaceutical and aluminium industries.

“Counterfeiting affects a nation on five different levels and adversely impacts our society. It affects consumers, employment and job-creation, government revenue, image and reputation, and most importantly local industry and traders,” Mr. Darko said.

“Counterfeiting is greater in areas where regulatory oversight is weaker. Intellectual property protection and enforcement have contributed significantly to innovation, investment and growth around the world.”