New Trade Commission to check dumping
Cabinet has submitted to Parliament for passage a bill setting up the Ghana International Trade Commission (GITC) to deal with unfair trade practices such as dumping of goods which renders local production uncompetitive.
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The commission will as part of its mandate, ensure fair competition for persons engaged in domestic production and international trade in order to protect the domestic market from the impact of unfair trade practices.
When it becomes operational, the GITC will absorb the current Tariff Advisory Board (TAB) inaugurated in 2009 as an administrative measure to strengthen institutional arrangements in the implementation of trade laws and policies in the country.
The Chairman of the TAB, Mr Tawiah Akyea, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, shortly after a workshop on the Trade Commission that the GITC would impose an anti-dumping duty on imported products once dumping could be proven. This could be determined when the export price of the p
“We have tried administrative measures but these are not adequate or they don’t meet the World Trade Organsation (WTO) requirements that insist that hearings are done objectively. That is why we are bringing up the law to give us the legal authority to do what we are expected to do,” Mr Akyea explained.
Although the ministry had been receiving complaints from players within the trade and industry sector, there was no legally defined process for handling them, the chairman of the TAB said after the workshop which was organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to sensitise stakeholders and the public about the GITC initiative.
Unbridled liberalisation
The liberalisation of Ghana's international trade regime has resulted in the flooding of various kinds of imported goods on the Ghanaian market, with some coming in at ridiculously low prices, a situation that has almost collapsed the manufacturing sector.
The TAB was, therefore, to serve also as a focal point in guiding the government on tariff-related issues. It was again to fill a vacuum in the Ghana trade policy that limited the ability of the government to take advantage of remedies provided under the WTO rules.
Countervailing duties
The commission shall also impose a countervailing duty on products which are imported, where it determines that a countervailing subsidy has been or is being provided in respect of that product.
The bill defines anti-dumping duty to “be of an amount equal to the margin of dumping being the difference between the normal value of the dumped imports and their export price.”
Dumping is, in general, a situation of international price discrimination, where the price of a product when sold in the importing country is less than the price of that product in the market of the exporting country. Thus, it is identified simply by comparing prices in the two markets.
The commission
According to Mr Akyea, the GITC would be autonomous. However, the sector minister may give directives in writing on matters of policy for which the commission would comply.
The directives shall, however, be consistent with the objects of the law.
Trade regime
Functions of the commission include the monitoring and reviewing of the pattern of Ghana’s trade and advice the minister on matters affecting trade and industry, study, identify and recommend to the minister tariff levels for specific sectors of the economy with due regard for effective rate of protection.
It also has a mandate to enquire into and determine complaints brought before the commission in relation to safeguard measures.
It shall also impose such duty if the effect of the dumping of the product is causing or threatening to cause material injury to a domestic producer or the domestic industry producing a like or directly competitive product or is likely to retard the establishment of a domestic industry.