President inaugurates GITC Board
President Nana Addo dankwa Akufo-Addo has inaugurated the Board of the Ghana International Trade Commission (GITC), calling on it to ensure that the country conforms with the rules and regulations governing the Worlds’ trade system.
Also, the President charged the newly constituted Board to work against predatory trade pricing, otherwise known as dumping, in order to protect Ghanaian producers and strengthen their ability to satisfy the domestic markets, saying, “The future growth of our economy is closely linked to the growth of the domestic productive sector.”
At a short ceremony at the Jubilee House in Accra on Wednesday, President Akufo-Addo reminded the members of the Board that their selection was to bring their experience and expertise to bear on the effective administration of the GITC and to the benefit of the Ghanaian people.
“The task ahead is daunting…Much of the future development of our country rest on your shoulders,” he told them.
The Board, chaired by Nana Adu Gyamfi, includes Sophia Korko, Prof. Paul Kurkuk, Philip Jude Mensah and Mr Arnold Tetteh Okai.
The President emphasised further, that government’s vision of wanting Ghana’s relations with other nations within and outside the Continent was to be characterised by trade and investment cooperation and not aid.
“I believe that is the way to develop healthy relations and put Ghanaian products at the high end of the value chain on the global market, and thereby create jobs for the teeming Ghanaian youth.
Thus, “The role of the GITC in the view of government is critical to the realisation of this vision,” he stressed.
President Akufo-Addo said with the signing of the treaty establishing the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) by 44 African nations in Kigali, Rwanda Last month at the African Union’s Extra Ordinary Summit, set to create a single continental market for goods and services and investments, the GITC Board should work assiduously to ensure that Ghana accrued the benefits from that arrangement.
He noted that with Africa’s population set to reach two billion in 20 years’ time, an African common market presented “an immense opportunity to bring prosperity to our Continent through hard work, creativity and enterprise”.
“It is vital that the CFTA works,” he said, stressing that “And under my leadership, Ghana would commit to the success of the CFTA…to set the stage for the accelerated development of our country, the ECOWAS region and the entire Continent.”
Nana Adu Gyamfi on behalf of the Board expressed gratitude to the President for the trust and faith bestowed upon them and assured that they would be guided by the ideals and policies that led to the establishment of the Commission.
He pledged that the Board would be committed to honesty, fairness, independently and timeliness in the performance of its obligations, and called on stakeholders and captains of industries to play their roles to make government’s vision successful.
Empowered by an Act of Parliament, the GITC was established as an Agency responsible for ensuring compliance with the rules and regulations of international trade, and to regulate Ghana’s international trade in conformity with the rules and regulations of the world trade system and deal with related matters.
As part of its duties under the law, GITC is to ensure special import safeguard measures such as anti- dumping duties and tariff adjustment.
GITC is also required under the law to monitor and advise the Minister of Trade and Industry on Ghana’s compliance with its bilateral and multilateral treaty obligations in the area of international trade, conduct studies and publish reports on the competitiveness of Ghana’s tariff structure and the impact of the tariff structure on domestic industry, market access opportunities and challenges in relation to exports from Ghana.
In addition, GITC, is expected to ensure fairness, efficiency, transparency and objectivity in the application of measures affecting international trade and the use of world trade measures.
Source: GNA