The EU Ambassador to Ghana, Irchad Razaaly, has disclosed that his outfit is in constant touch with Ghanaian authorities regarding export to the European markets under the EU Ghana Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
According to him, the EPA has been in place since last year and said “so far so good”, urging Ghanaian businesses to take advantage of marketing and selling to close to 450million consumers in Europe.
The EPA is a development-oriented free trade agreement. Under the agreement, the EU provides duty-free and quota- free access for Ghana’s exports to the EU from the first day of application.
READ ALSO: External shocks to blame for Ghana's economic woes - IMF boss
Ghana, on the other hand, will progressively reduce its tariffs to zero for 78% of its imports from the EU by 2029.
Speaking with Business24 in an interview during GIPC’s Young Entrepreneurs Forum (YEF) in Accra,
Mr. Razaaly said “We are conducting regular discussions with Ghanaian authorities when it comes to the lines related to the most transformed goods.
Our goal as the EU is to help the Ghanaian economy to industrialise more in order to sell transformed, better industralised products in the EU market. This is the purpose of the agreement.”
The transformed products, he explained, includes cocoa being transformed to chocolate to increase its value, shea butter, fruits, agriculture, industralised products like fertilizer.
“All range of products, but to access the EU market, it has to be more transformed to bring in more revenue to the Ghanaian economy.”
Mr. Razaaly also indicated that the EU has been addressing the country’s eco-system through skills provision, access to funding as well as access to markets, adding that they invested 170million euros into the Development Bank Ghana in order for the bank to make available funding via commercial bank, which is expected to benefit young
entrepreneurs as well.
The tariff cutting process started in 2020, creating significant new export opportunities for EU exporters. Available data indicate that under the EPA, Ghana is gradually removing its import duties for 78 percent of EU exports by 2029.
Business24