Major exporters to Europe are impressing on government to sign onto the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), despite the exit of the UK from the European Union.
The exporters, who admit of possible distortions to Ghana’s export trade relations with the UK as a result of the development, however harbour fears of adverse impact on their operations regarding employment creation and revenue generation until such a time that negotiation will be concluded for the exit.
“It is much too early for us to know how this will impact on businesses and trade. Even most businesses in the UK do not know how this will impact their businesses and how long this whole negotiation will take. But the reality is that on October 1, if we do not have any arrangement with the EU, we will have difficulties exporting to the EU region including the UK,” the Corporate Affairs Manager of Golden Exotics Limited, George Kporye told Citi Business News.
Britain exits EU
Britain last Thursday in a referendum, voted to exit the EU over concerns of the Union’s excessive control over the lives of citizens.
The move has since generated a lot of reactions from various markets particularly on the forex markets within Europe.
The British Pound for instance on Friday fell to a record low since 1985.
Some have argued that Ghana re-engages with the UK over its trade agreements as it is one of the country’s main export markets in the EU.
But George Kporye whose company engages in the export of banana and pineapple to Europe maintained that the glaring impact on their revenue and employment makes a non-signing in-negotiable.
“It is still an evolving situation and it is quite difficult to tell. We do significant volumes of exports with the UK as well as also to Europe. My view on this is that this disentanglement will take a while to work itself out so we need to continue with what arrangement we have as far as marketing is concerned until such a time that the situation becomes clearer,” he stated.
Mr. Kpoye added,“…So we need to make sure that we do not have any distractions to our businesses while we watch out and see how this whole development rolls out.”
Ghana to renegotiate trade deals with UK
Following concerns on whether or not the country will review its existing trade relations with the EU and the UK, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Hannah Tetteh explained of the need to enter into a renegotiation to meet the dynamic phase of trade practices.
“We would now have to consider renegotiation of our bilateral trade agreement with the UK even though this is something that we see coming in the horizon, we also will have to anticipate beginning our bilateral trade with the European Union (EU) as we have significant trade agreements with Germany, France, among others,” she said.
Meanwhile Madam Hanna Tetteh has remarked that the exit of the UK from the EU will not significantly affect ongoing discussions on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana