As more countries take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Professor Alexander Dodoo, has maintained that goods that do not meet the required standards would not be allowed to enter the country.
He said this at a reform dialogue organized by IMANI Ghana and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on the topic “What Does the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) mean for Ghanaian Businesses”. Professor Dodoo stated that standards will be enforced to prevent the country from being a dumping ground.
“As a country we need to ensure that the AfCFTA does not become a risk to us because the risks are there and if we do not enforce our standards regime, we could very easily become a dumping ground for substandard products which have been subsidized by governments of other African countries to be traded here and that will take our manufacturers and traders out of business,” he stated
According to him, despite the great opportunities that are offered to Ghanaian businesses and the country under the trade agreement, Ghana stands the risk of easily becoming a dumping place for sub-standard goods from other African countries.
“The AfCFTA is an advantage and an opportunity but it’s a huge risk and if we sleep walk into it by not having the standards structure in place, Ghanaian traders will literally be at the risk of external forces,” he reiterated.
The IMANI-GIZ Reform Dialogue, seeks to scrutinize the operational aspects of the AfCFTA and come up with information to the Ghanaian business group on how they can practically take advantage of the continental trade deal and also aims at accessing the opportunities and limitations of AfCFTA for the Ghanaian economy.
