AGI divided over EPA
Members of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) are divided over whether the government should join other West African states to sign onto the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
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While some members of the association, mostly the tuna, fruit processors and exporters and other companies exporting into the European market, are fully behind the agreement, their counterparts who manufacture for the local and sub-regional market are up in arms against it.
That is in spite of the fact that the AGI had on April 17 issued a statement in which it called on the government not to give its assent to the EPA.
The disagreement within the association over the matter seriously arose at a forum organised by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) in Accra to solicit the views of industry and civil society organisations (CSOs) on the stance the country should take as far as the EPA, a proposed bilateral trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Asian, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, is concern.
Although the Vice President of AGI, Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi, had stated that the association, which is made up of more than 400 members, was against the signing of the agreement in its current state, some members later took turns at the event to lobby government into endorsing it.
The Executive Chairman of Myrock Food Processing Company, Mr Sam Mensah; the General Manager of Pioneer Food Cannery Limited (PFC), Mr Nichol J. Elizabeth, and the representative of Golden Exotics Limited said their companies could collapse and thousands of jobs would be lost if government failed to sign the agreement.
"Our operations are generally dependent on the EU market. We export solely to the EU and not signing the EPA means that our cost of operations will rise; we will be faced with tariffs and the high cost of our products will be uncompetitive," the GM of Pfc, who spoke on behalf of the tuna processors and exporters said.
"We employ lots of people and many more businesses, including stevedoring, vessel operators and other input suppliers, depend on us to survive. If government doesn't sign the EPA, then it means we would have to look elsewhere for better operating environments," Mr Elizabeth added.
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Similar sentiments were expressed by Golden Exotics, which started operations in the country in 2003 under the Free Zones programme.
AGI stance
Sources within the AGI later told the paper that the official stance of the association, which is against the signing of the EPA, was reached after heated disagreements.
"It was an intense debate; some were saying we should go against it and some were saying we should support it but they later came to a consensus, which is the one that was contained in the statement," the source said.
That statement, which was signed by the President, Mr Asare-Adjei, and published in some newspapers, mentioned the negative impact of the EPA on local enterprises, potential revenue losses by way of tariff removals on imports from the EU and the general strangulation of the local manufacturing sector as a whole as some of the key drivers that should motivate government not to sign the EPA.
"We are talking of opening our markets to foreign products as against encouraging local manufacturing. I'm into the pharmaceutical business and if you sign the EPA and allow their products into the country tariff free, are you now going to say I should compete with their less costly products regardless of the implication on demand or I should shut down and watch them," the AGI Vice President, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of DANADAMS Pharmaceuticals, said at the forum.
His views were readily embraced by Dr Yao Graham, the Coordinator of the Third World Network, whose outfit had long kicked against the EPA.
He said at the forum that the government needed to listen to the views of local enterprises such as those espoused by the AGI in the lead up to taking a decision on the matter.
"What the AGI is saying is crucial to this debate, not foreign investors who will come here, make profit and take it back to their home countries. The future of this country will be determined by local entrepreneurs who will stay here with their profits no matter the situation," he said.GB