Ghana has reportedly signed the interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.
Joy Business learned that the pact was signed last Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium between Ghana’s Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union (EU).
According to the Accra-based radio station, Cabinet and Parliament are expected to endorse the agreement this week to give it the necessary legal backing.
The agreement will ensure that businesses and industries in Ghana can export to the EU market quota-free and without paying for any duties on their products.
Firms in the EU in return can also export goods and services to the Ghanaian market, quota-free, duty-free.
Some industry watchers see the agreement as an extension of the interim Economic Partnership Agreement that was initiated by the President J.A. Kuffour in 2007.
This is to ensure that Ghana’s exports to the EU market, one of the countries, biggest trading partners, are not disrupted, whiles it waits for the West African Economic Partnership Agreement to be fully implemented by all the 16 member country.
Currently, only 13 countries including Ghana that agreed in July 2014 to the pact have signed, leaving Nigeria, Gambia and Mauritania yet to join.
Ghana had until, October 1 to sign the agreement or risk been asked to pay levies and taxes on their exports to the EU market.
However, it is not everyone that sees this agreement as good for the economy.
Some civil society groups have maintained it will lead to led to job losses because the Ghanaian market is not strong enough to compete on equal footing with goods from EU.