Rashid Pelpuo, Minister in charge of Public-Private Partnership
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Monday, April 7, 2014
The controversial Economic Partnership
Agreement (EPA) will be signed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC)
government, according to Rashid Pelpuo, Minister in charge of Public-Private
Partnership.
Opponents of the deal have persistently
argued that the move will automatically hand over the economic control of 16
West African states that form ECOWAS to the European Union (EU), but the
government is adamant.
According to the minister, it will be
too costly not to sign because the EPA is tied to “aid, technical assistance,
political relationship and trade.”
ECOWAS
Agenda
The EPA deal was high on the agenda when
ECOWAS Heads of State gathered at the 44th ordinary session in Yamoussoukro in
the Ivory Coast where President John Dramani Mahama was elected Chairman of the
West African regional body.
In the run-up to the session, Foreign
Minister Hannah Tetteh had said that the government will support any decision
by the ECOWAS leadership on the EPA.
“It’s not a question of what is Ghana’s
stance because this is an ECOWAS decision. Either we all agree or we don’t
agree,” she said.
However, a communiqué issued after the
session appeared to indicate that all member states could not agree on the deal
and therefore had to be put on hold once again.
Some states, particularly Nigeria, raised
concern about technical matters in the agreement and that compelled the heads
of state and government to shelve the signing of the deal.
Although the deal could not finally be
signed, the ECOWAS leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the agreement and
endorsed its conclusion in principle and subsequently directed the chief
negotiators to take steps to address the issues raised by Nigeria and other
member states within two months before appending their signature to the EPA.
Done
deal
On Joy FM’s news analysis programme
Newsfile last Saturday, Rashid Pelpuo said the EPA was almost a done deal and
said in the absence of a viable alternative, Ghana's economy stood little
chance in boycotting the agreement.
“So if your budget is not balancing and
every time you depend on somebody to balance your budget and you now say you
won't sign, they will pull out in that aid because it is tied to it. If they
were giving technical assistance to your ministries, departments, agencies and
you now say you won't sing, they will pull out of it,” he explained.
He said Ghana will face economic
consequences if the government fails to sign the agreement by the October 2014
deadline.
Local businesses exporting to the EU
will have to pay full export duties which could collapse their businesses.
“We have to get to a point where we have
to agree and sign this agreement. We can't continue to say we won't sign and
not give reasons why we won't sign,” he said.
Casely-Hayford’s
input
In a related development, Financial
Analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford has urged the government to sign agreement
because its benefits far exceed its disadvantages.
He said on Citi FM’s The
Big Issue that ECOWAS leaders should have signed the agreement.
“We should have signed and moved on, the
benefits of signing this agreement far exceed the disadvantages,’’ he said.
Mr. Casely-Hayford said assertions that
the agreement will destroy the Ghanaian manufacturing and industry was false.
“Instead of looking at the negatives, we
should look at the positive aspects and grow our non-traditional exports as
well as improving our export market.”
‘’I think that there is too much
sentiment surrounding all of this; if you look at it from a purely business
point of view, somebody is offering (Ghana and ECOWAS) the opportunity to get
into a far bigger market than you can ever expect.’’
Civil Society Organisations, including
the Christian Council of Ghana and the Trades Union Congress Ghana (TUC), have
all opposed the signing of the EPA.
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