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.
Source: Daily Graphic
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