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Government assesses Ghana trade facilitation needs
Accra, Aug. 25, Ghanadot/GNA - A
week-long workshop opened in Accra on Monday to assess
Ghana’s trade facilitation needs to ensure effective
negotiation for differential treatment at ongoing trade
facilitation negotiations.
The workshop, which is expected to provide proposals to
influence trade facilitation negotiations, has drawn
facilitators from the World Trade Organization (WTO) to
assist the participants who are from both public and private
sectors to develop the country's trade facilitation needs.
Addressing the workshop, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Minister of
Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and President's
Special Initiatives, said linking trade related institutions
in a more productive way to improve the business
environment, especially at the ports was a challenge
confronting the nation.
Papa Owusu-Ankomah said a situation where institutions
unilaterally initiated their own regulations and laws also
posed a challenge to the business community and called for
the publication of those laws and regulations to ensure that
there was transparency.
He said there was the need to incorporate comprehensive
technical assistance and capacity building provisions with
flexible domestic policy necessary to respond to country
specific circumstances in the New Trade Facilitation
Agreement.
He urged the participants to develop appropriate technical
assistance requirements to enable the country to implement
obligations arising out of the trade facilitation agreement.
Mr Robert Struthers, a Technical Officer of the World
Customs Organisation, said the World Trade Organization's
negotiation proposals agreed by its members would be used to
assist the participants to assess the country's needs.
He expressed the hope that the workshop would come out with
proposals that would guide the country's negotiators at the
trade facilitation negotiations.
GNA
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