Ghana risk losing a total of 40,000 jobs over
the next 10 years if the country goes ahead to sign the EPA in its current
state, the Coordinator of the Third World Network, Dr Yao Graham, has
said.The job losses will result from a crumbling of the light
industrial sector in the economy, which promises to create more jobs in the very
near future, Dr Graham said at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast
Meeting in Accra.
He was making a case against the signing of the EPA,
which grants unrestricted access to Ghana's exports into the EU market. The
market comprise 18 economies and is currently a key destination for
exports.
Beyond the job losses, Dr Graham said estimates by the Network
showed that the country would lose a sizeable amount of its important tariffs,
as a result of the removal of importance duties on selected imports from the
EU.
Those estimates put the figure at $126 million, he said.
As
a result he said Ghana needed to ensure that the agreement is renegotiated to
fit into its economic development agenda.
"One key thing about trade
agreements is that they must fit coherently into a country's development
agenda," he said, admitting that they always lowered and gained in such
deals.
He, however, explained that such losers needed to be motivated on
the part of Ghana hence the need for a re-look at the
agreement. |
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