This was contained in a joint communique issued after the Ghana-EU Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (iEPA) maiden meeting in Accra, on Wednesday.

It said under the EPA, it would provide all Ghana’s exports, agricultural or manufactured products to the EU market duty-free and quota-free, while Ghana would gradually and partially liberalise imports from the EU.

The communique said the EPA would protect existing jobs in the export sector and aimed at bringing more investment to Ghana and create new jobs.

The meeting was attended by officials from the Ministries of Trade and Industry, Finance, Foreign Affairs, ECOWAS and EU member States as well as some civil society organisations.

According to the communique, the Parties re-affirmed their commitment to the iEPA as a mechanism for dialogue and partnership, as well as a tool to boost trade and investment and foster development.

“The EPA Committee endorsed the rules of procedures governing the joint EPA Committee. The Parties discussed the example in the implementation of the iEPA in Cote d’Ivoire and West Africa and exchanged information in respect of Rules of Origins, Liberalisation schedule, institutional set up and the monitoring of the EPA,” it said.

It said the Parties agreed to set up an appropriate mechanism of monitoring of the implementation of the iEPA.

The communique said the Parties agreed to start negotiating the procedures relating to a reciprocal Protocol on Rules of Origin of the Ghana-EU IEPA.

“The EPA Committee provisionally endorsed the transposition of the tariff nomenclature in HS 2017. The Parties agreed to start reviewing the liberalisation schedule.

“The Parties agreed to continue to exchange papers with the proposal of each Party on these matters with the view to finding an agreement on those issues during a technical meeting which would take place in July 2018 in Brussels,” it said.

It indicated that the Parties reviewed the EPA accompanying measures and strategy undertaken by Ghana, which provides the roadmap and strategic framework to maximise the opportunities of the EPA.

It said the EU was fully committed to supporting the strategy and providing a total of 12 million Euros through the 11th European Development Fund to support its implementation.

The EPA Committee discussed the consequences of the accession of Croatia in the EPA. Committee, which would take place in Brussels during the first quarter of 2019.