DISRECPECT FOR ECOWAS TRADE TREATIES, MEMBER COUNTRIES MUST LIVE TO TASK

THE Objective of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Policy is to establish a customs union among all member states aimed at the total elimination of customs duties and taxes of equivalent effect.

The scheme, which also seeks the removal of non-tariff barriers, as well as the establishment of a Common Customs External Tariff to protect goods produced in member states, cannot be described as living to the expectation of the policy’s introduction.

Whereas the regional body continues to advocate the existence of total exemption from import duties and taxes, as well as no quantitative restriction on goods originating from member states, the implementation of the policy on the other hand seems to have hit a dead end, with most member countries not respecting the treaties.

The just ended Ghana Solo exhibition fair held in Cotonou, Benin by the Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC) in collaboration with the Ghana Embassy did not only go to corroborate the rapid disrespect for the trade liberalisation policy, but also sought to point out that member countries of French-speaking countries are just not interested in a successful implementation of the protocols.

Whereas goods of Ghanaian exhibitors arrived in that country on Monday September 5, ahead of the opening ceremony on September 8, the goods were only released at the eleventh hour when the ceremony was underway after frantic pleas were made by the Ghanaian Ambassador, Mr Modestus Ahiable, to the Beninois Minister of Commerce, Small and Medium Enterprises for the release of the goods.

The situation did not only leave exhibitors visibly worried on the whereabouts of their cargo, but also left officials dejected for what Customs officials at the Togo-Benin (Hilla Condji) Border described as their inability to locate an escort with the original documentations covering the consignment by the commissioner general to send the goods to the Benin Port Authority.

A dejected-looking Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GEPC, Dr Kwadwo Owusu-Agyemang, and Ghana’s Ambassador, Mr Ahiable, did not only express regret at the much talk about trade liberation policy, but the two also shared disappointing sentiments that the policy continued to be on paper with no implementation strategy in sight.

The customs clearance procedures at the Hilla Condji border resulting from unnecessary bureaucracy were not only cumbersome, but also very frustrating for businessmen and women.

???What is more intriguing is that although the country’s trade authorities are fully aware of frustrations at the entry point, the implementation of the Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA) regulation with other French-speaking countries with common currency, critics and market watchers believed were hampering French-speaking communities of ECOWAS.???

The UEMOA regulations are seriously thwarting the ECOWAS trade scheme, and this is therefore a wake-up call for the regional body to rethink through its common Single Currency Programme, as well as the establishment of the ECOWAS Central Bank.

To Mr Ahiable, resuscitating the single currency project by the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) among member countries made up of Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Guinea and Liberia and the Union Monetaire Louest Africaine (UMOA) countries made up of Benin, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Mali would ensure the integration of the two UMOA and WAMZ blocs that would as well enhance the outlook and better promote the region’s economic outlook within the international markets.


SOURCE: Dells Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Sept 25, 2011