Ranking Member of Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, James Agalga says there are a lot of reasons why the government is not able to strictly enforce the laws on retail trade.
According to him, the complex nature of the local and continental trade environment makes it difficult for the government to just round up foreigners and asked them to leave the retail sector.
Expressing his opinion on the recent attack on foreign traders and threat from spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai to also sack foreigners from their market if government fail to do same, James Agalga said the traders have no right to sack foreigners from the market.
"The issues are very complex and there is some inertia on the part of government with regards to the enforcement of the GIPC law, in the face of the ECOWAS protocol you can understand why there is that inertia on government's part, yes in our time this issue erupted we dealt with it we had a series of meetings with GUTA but you see the point must be made very loud and clear that GUTA is not a law enforcement agency."
"The ECOWAS protocol is a law and it binds us and ones we sign on to that protocol we assume certain obligations under international laws regardless of the fact that we never took steps to domesticate the protocols against our laws, it hasn't be brought before parliament for ratification but if you want to reduce the issue to our dual status as a country yes it is not a good law but I'm saying that under international law the very moment Ghana signs on to the ECOWAS treaty we assume certain international obligation," he stated on Joy FM.
Explaining further some actions in the past with regards to why getting foreigners from the retail business did not succeed, the MP said most Ghanaians have fronted for most of these businesses and it's difficult to say it's a solely foreign-owned business.
"That explains why government finds it difficult to enforce the GIPC law to it later but haven't said that it not as if government agencies have gone to sleep, in time past some task force was put together they went to the market, identified a number of shops which were said to belong to foreigners and profile some of them and identify the shareholders that took some time."
Speaking on the same programme Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil said treaties signed do not override our local laws.
He added that this issue has been popping up most often and the government needs to tackle it as it has some xenophobic tendencies.
"Every government face this issue because for like every 4years this issue pops up and why haven't we found the solution yet. It is a dangerous thing we are allowing it to start. From Busia time, Ghana and Nigeria have played this game and it's not helping us."
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