February 22, 2021

 Member of Parliament for Okaikwei Central, Yaw Patrick Boamah has called on the Ministry of Trade and Industry and other policy makers to act immediately to resolve the current challenges between Ghana and Benin in terms of export.

According to him Ghanaian companies which export their products to other West African countries especially Benin are currently facing serious challenges for sending their products, due to some trade policy amendments on the part of the Benin government.

He noted that the Benin government does not want all companies from Ghana to enjoy tax reliefs that are supposed to be granted to these companies when they send their products to that country.

In an interview he pointed out that he had received a letter from some of the companies that export goods through the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme, and the action taken by Benin has been in effect for the past six months.

Mr. Boamah explained that, these tax relief cut offs were allowing Ghanaian Companies to be more competitive on the Benin market, but now that it is taken off, Ghanaian Companies like Interplast and other companies are seriously complaining about the current happenings in Benin.

He called on the appropriate authorities to do everything within their mandate to resolve the issue in other to allow Ghanaian Companies, to do their work according to rules and laws between these two countries.

“The decision to take off tax reliefs could affect Ghanaian companies’ performance on the market and could also lead to job losses to people working in all these Ghanaian companies”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com