This call is part of what the Ghana-German Economic Association (GGEA) wants from the next government from next year.

The President of the GGEA, Mr Stephen Antwi, who articulated the wishes of the association at its annual end-of-year dinner and induction of new officers, said the measure would ensure that the country took advantage of its quota-free duty-free access to the European Union (EU) market under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) the country signed with the EU in August this year to promote trade between the country and the EU.

Though the signing is interim, Ghana is expected to team up with the rest of the ECOWAS members to sign a more permanent trade pact with the EU that will define the trading relationship between the two ends.

The trade deal will guarantee a total open access of goods from Ghana to the EU market without tariffs, while in return Ghana will open up to 80 per cent of its market to goods coming from the EU.

However, Mr Antwi said if the country sat down without taking any deliberate strategic measures to increase exports under the trade regime, it would be buffeted by an influx of EU imports and in the end, the people would complain that the trade pact was not favourable, when the actual reason would be the failure to prepare to take advantage.

The GGEA president recounted how Ghana had the same opportunity under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which it had since its inception in 2000 not made any meaningful use of.

To that end, the GGEA wants any government which will be in power next year to set up an EPA Implementation Committee with a range of terms of reference that will enable the country scale up exports to the EU.

The committee should among other things come out with all the policies that would be required to increase production of the identified exports, as well as remove all impediments to those exports in record time.

“Again, we want this committee to liaise with organisations such as the GGEA to bring in experts from Germany to help companies not only to increase their management capacities, but also to meet the stringent market entry requirements of the EU,” he stated.

ETLS

The ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) is a protocol that guarantees the free movement of goods and services, people and capital to facilitate intra-ECOWAS trade and investment. While the movement of people has been very successful, that of goods is a far cry.

Mr Antwi said 2017 should start the period in which Ghana would lead the rest of the ECOWAS member states to ensure the implementation of the protocols on the movement of goods.

“The GGEA would also like to implore the Ghanaian government in 2017 to expend political capital to really activate the ECOWAS protocols on the movement of goods within the ECOWAS region. Foreign investments into Ghana would go up several notches if the ECOWAS protocols on the movement of goods are made to work,” he stressed.

The GGEA, according to its president, looked forward to next year with a lot of expectations, saying, “Whichever government assumes office will have the opportunity to make things a lot better for the country.”

The year in retrospect

The GGEA advocates a congenial business climate for the private sector and also works to promote bilateral trade relations between Germany and the rest of the EU with Ghana and the rest of ECOWAS.

During the year, the association organised a number of business forums, including a seminar on Doing Business with Germany; the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy and the Stamp Tax Policy, as well as Ghana's Economic Outlook for 2016 and Beyond.

At last Saturday’s end-of-year event, the GGEA also inducted into office a five-member Governing Council, which is still presided over by Mr Antwi.

The German Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Christoph Retzlaff, the guest speaker, said although Ghana was the fourth largest West African trading partner of Germany, the country should not be complacent but work closely to increase the volumes.

“I can assure you that promoting trade and investment between Germany and Ghana will be personally one of my priorities here. We’ve already started with a couple of initiatives, trying to bring together all stakeholders from the German side and Ghanaian side.”

Mr Retzlaff stressed that the key to success was to rally more of such stakeholders to, for instance, bridge the gap between development cooperation and trade and investment.

“This is the key for the future,” he stated, adding that Ghana and the entire African continent were very high on the political cooperation agenda of Germany.