Don�t Side With Nigeria ...Ghana Cautioned

Ghana has been cautioned against siding with Nigeria in the process to signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Director of Policy think tank, Imani Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, who issued the warning argued out that it would be wrong on the part of Ghana to side with Nigeria as Ghana needs the EU more than the body needs the country. �Nigeria is riding high on its crude oil revenue which is being used in subsidizing its industrial sector to position them competitively for exports,� he wrote. According to him, Ghana cannot align with Nigeria on the EPA because Nigeria�s economy is structured differently from our economy.� Mr. Cudjoe continues that in 2012, Ghana�s largest trading partner in total export was the EU constituting 48.7% of export, �Similarly, EUs exports to Ghana were 0.2% of its total exports (2013), while this translates to roughly 21.7% of our total imports (2012),� he wrote. The salient idea, Franklin noted, is that the gain in removing export tariffs to EU is more beneficial to us (Ghana/ECOWAS) than the gain to them in the removal of import tariffs to Ghana and the ECOWAS region. �The hard truth is that Ghana, Franklin wrote �is more vulnerable to the EU than it wishes to admit.� He again noted that Nigeria has no external debt pressures from the World Bank or the IMF. �Also crucial is that,� he wrote, �Nigeria has the largest market in the ECOWAS region with a population of 169million (2012) which is more than half of the 300million market share that the EU brings to the trade table.� He also criticised Nigeria�s ban of certain products from Ghana describing it as �sluggish.� On non-traditional exports, Franklin noted that the EPA with Ghana affects primarily the exports in the non-traditional sector as exports in the traditional sector already have tariff free access to the EU. �The Non-Traditional Exports (NTEs) in 2012, made up 17.46% of total exports from Ghana while the traditional exports, which are Cocoa Beans, Logs, Mineral Ore (e.g. Unprocessed gold), Electricity, Fresh fish, Fresh yam make up the rest,� he wrote. �Our NTEs conversely will be crippled by export tariffs to the EU,� he added.