News:
December 13, 2019
President of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude K. Brou has expressed worry over challenges that the West African sub-region is facing with regards to free movement of persons and goods despite giant strides made.
According to the Commission President, a lot of progress has been made compared to other regional blocs, adding that ECOWAS has dealt with the issues of visa.
He further pointed out that as the Parliament embarked on trips across member states to assess the situation on the ground, their field trips revealed that citizens of the West African sub-region still face harassments.
This, he noted, is something that should be worked on, the Commission is playing its role and the member states are those who are implementing the regional regulations hence the need to work together.
In addition, the Commission did not want to go into details in its report, there are a lot of tariffs but we say we do not pay duties when goods get to the borders. “There are duties put in place which are not recognised at the community level but in reality traders are told they have to pay”. He was responding to questions on the floor after presenting state of the Community to lawmakers.
Mr. Jean-Claude K. Brou pointed out that Regional Integration is one of the priority for forming the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to bring trade and economic growth.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com/Abuja