News:
March 26, 2021
Mr. Clement Kofi Humado, a member of Ghana’s delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, has said the West African sub-region would lose levies it gains from African countries that are not part of the regional bloc, because they had joined the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
According to him most of the West African Countries trade with most of the South African countries especially South Africa and because they are not part of ECOWAS goods bought are subjected to tax of which the levy is deducted.
“So joining AfCFTA, it means all those countries in Africa belong to the same free trade areas and their goods would not be subjected to import tax, so those revenues are we use to make when we were importing from Southern Africa and Africa states would be lost to our budget; that is an issue we should consider going in to ratify AfCFTA and its implementation”.
In an interview, he emphasized that most countries are going to lose revenue they were enjoying trading with the rest of Africa, that is an issue, he said.
And on Economic Partnership Agreement with Africa, he further pointed out that it is resolved because he learnt that ECOWAS can still charge its import levy on goods originating from the European Union (EU). “They have come to a consensus on that and it is no longer a problem”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com