Trade Policy for Ghana

This Policy is set within the context of Ghana's long-term strategic vision of achieving middle-income status by 2012 and becoming a leading agro-industrial country in Africa. The policy provides clear and transparent guidelines for the implementation of Government's domestic and international trade agenda. It is also designed to ensure a consistent and stable policy environment within which the private sector and consumers can operate effectively and with certainty. The formulation process for this Trade Policy has been intensely consultative and has taken into account the views of all the major stakeholders in Ghana as well as what constitutes international best practices.
The fundamental principle underlying the Trade Policy is that the private sector is the engine of growth, with Government providing a trade enabling environment to actively stimulate private sector initiatives. This is to be achieved through the full spectrum of trade policy instruments across the following thematic areas: (i) Multilateral Trade, (ii) Creating a fair and transparent import-export regime, (iii) Facilitating Trade, (iv) Enhancing Production Capacity for Domestic and Export Markets, (v) Domestic Trade and Distribution, (vi) Consumer Protection and Fair Trade, (vii) Protection of intellectual property rights.
In order to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, Government will specifically target the agricultural sector in terms of agro-processing, provision of basic foodstuffs for the domestic market and improving competitiveness through economies of scale production and improved technology. Such activities will be addressed through effective implementation of the Food and Agricultural Sector Development Policy.
Regarding the reduction of rural poverty, the policy envisages to encourage value-addition and increase employment and growth throughout the supply chain and to enhance labour productivity and improve management efficiency, making production in Ghana more competitive, increasing value-added potential and ensuring long-term Welfare for workers.
To enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food system, the policy plans the following actions: (i) to encourage investment and raise competitiveness in both exports and imports and provide lower prices to consumers, the Government will systematically identify and remove restrictions in Ghana's import-export regime, (ii) to prevent the control of imports distorting efficient allocation of domestic resources, (iii) the Government will facilitate the establishment of efficient free multi-purpose zones to enable quick and effective movement of imported inputs and finished exports through the ports, combined with additional fiscal incentives to lower costs and support efficient logistics for exporting, (iv) To ensure speedy and efficient customs clearance and thus reduce costs, (v) Government will provide concessionary export finance facilities to the non-traditional export sector to increase access to, and lower the cost of finance for exports, (vi) to ensure adequate and cost-effective infrastructure for producers to encourage investment and improve competitiveness.
In addition, the policy plans to bring traders into the formal sector, broaden the tax base and enable micro and small traders to access formal institutional support to expand their businesses and to lower costs through provision of adequate and competitively-priced credit to agricultural traders and producers.
In the context of governance, this Programme will be driven primarily by the Ministry of Trade and Industry but will be coordinated through a cross Ministerial Trade Policy Coordinating Committee, in recognition of its cross-cutting nature.