Ghanaian stakeholders train on EU trade rules

Ghanaian exporters have been advised to keep to the Ghana-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in order to help drive more investments for Ghana.

Stakeholders believe that complying with the trade rules would help to increase exports to EU countries, hence sustaining Ghanaian businesses. 

This came to light when a two-day training on the export requirement under the Ghana-EU EPA was organised for relevant stakeholder institutions in Accra on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.

The participants, who were drawn from 13 public institutions consisting of regulators and policy makers, were trained on varied topics relating to the customs procedures and trade facilitation under the Ghana-EU EPA. 

Similarly, participants were also introduced to concepts of trade facilitation as well as the review of a number of trade agreements. 

The training, which was organised by Compete Ghana was funded by the EU under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The Team Leader of Compete Ghana, Mr. Nichols Gebara, said the 2-day training was organised to help trade institutions and facilitators get a better coordination of their work. 

He stated that the key goal of trade facilitation is to promote an open intervention between institutions involved in trade, stressing “This is not about trade institutions, this is about networking among these institutions.”

He urged participants to help advocate the needs of trade facilitation to ensure the access of a clear and transparent information amongst exporters and importers. 

Mr. Gebara also encouraged the media to promote the role of facilitation and trade institutions when the need arises.

A Trade Facilitation expert and trainer, Mr Dode Seidu, said Ghana utilising and implementing trade facilitation broadly could enhance her competitiveness as compared to her neighboring countries. 

He said this was because there was competition for investment in all countries, but within West Africa, political stability was an advantage to attract and maintain investments in the country. 

He added that to better achieve trade facilitation, there was the need for more and continuous cooperation, harmonising their activities and simplifying their activities.

“If actors in trade are not compliant, they should not expect that the institutions involved in trade will accord them the benefits,” he added. 

Mr Seidu said the participants after the training were ready to in their own way make some changes or improve trade facilitation in Ghana.

“We discussed extensively and realized that trade facilitation is not a destination but a process, it is a process of continuous improvement for the private sector, so once they can go back and improve their processes, it will be better,” he stressed.

The Head of Product Inspection Department, Ghana Standard Authority, Mr Dode Seidu, who was a participant, said transparency was vital as far as trade facilitation was concerned. 

She added that simplification of trade facilitation processes was also important because it makes Ghana more competitive.

“So, if we can work in such a way that it will be risk based, it will help simplify the processes and save time so that exporters will be in business and at the end of the day benefit Ghana and make her more competitive,” she stressed. 

Another Participant, Darko Osei from the Ghana Export Promotion Center, said the training has been enlightening for him. 

The Trade Counselor for the EU Delegation in Ghana, Mr Raffaele Quarto, said the training was the first of its kind with different modules that was offered through the Compete Ghana programme to the different agencies in Ghana dealing with international trade. 

He said there were representatives from different government agencies, but they would also be training business association companies and other NGOs that were involved in international trade.

The trade counselor added that the institutions were expected to also educate the general public, exporters and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who visited their offices for information to improve their day-to-day activities.