As I argued yesterday on Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV , Ghana will sign the interim Economic Partnership Agreement because of the Budget Support we receive from the EU and crucially the imminent loss of market access to the EU however negligible. Our President is reported to have said same to the EU in Brussels a while ago when he met with the EU Chief. President Mahama urged the EU to disburse a € 64 million multi-donor budget support to Ghana, which has been held back because of some fiscal policy issues. The two leaders discussed the Economic Partnership Agreement being negotiated between the EU and ECOWAS, with President Mahama calling on the European Commission to show flexibility so that trade, in the interim, is not disrupted between Ghana or West Africa and Europe. What we should do: Sign the Interim EPA to avoid losing the little market access, and crucially investment as this is a bilateral arrangement with each country on its own. The Original EPA requires all 16 west African countries to sign and 28 EU members to agree, sign and implement. That has taken 7 years already and if we wait it will take another 2 years. But the real deal is the interim EPA that Ghana has initialed but not signed. If we fail to sign and say Ivory Coast signs, we lose the little access we have 40% for agric-related goods entirely (remember the deal will grant 100% access to African countries and 75% market access to the EU in Ghana etc.) and then investment. We should sign and then have the state employ good trade lawyers to deal with the larger issues of implementation of the Interim as well as the original EPA. We should be smarter to encourage our own regional trade. It is a pity to hear an African Trade Commissioner once tell Presdient Rawlings that Tanzanians dont eat chocolate to a question the latter asked on why Tanzanians cant just import Ghanaian chocolates but would rather Swiss? Victor Bampoe
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 17:25:19 +0000