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TRADE-GHANA: ‘‘How Would Mandelson Know What’s Good For Us?’’

David Cronin

ACCRA, Dec 15 2007 (IPS) - There is only one freezer in Ken’s Frozen Foods. Agnes Modenu, the manager of this tiny shop, lifts its lid and takes out transparent bags of frozen chicken parts. All of the meat has been delivered to a nearby harbour after being imported into Ghana, she says.

Not far from this dusty street in Lebanon, a district in the bustling Ghanaian town of Ashaiman, 10,000 chickens are being reared in Aqua Farms. Many of them are kept under thatched roofs but some roam unrestricted. One mother washes her 10-day-old chick in a muddy puddle across from a fish pond, stocked with tilapia and catfish.

Twenty-six people are employed here. Competing directly with cheap, subsidised imports from Europe is impossible. So the firm relies on the increase in consumption of native chicken at Christmas and other festivals, according to the manager-on-duty.

Ghana already accounts for one-third of all frozen chicken imported to Africa from the European Union.

The 20 percent tariff levied on food imports to Ghana has been in place now since the early 1990s. Ghana’s poultry farmers are worried that it would be reduced under the economic partnership agreement (EPA) that the European Commission is pushing the country’s government to sign before the end of this year.

The Commission is demanding that at least 80 percent of the taxes Ghana uses to cushion its farmers and industry from outside competition must be removed.

Kenneth Quartey, president of the Ghana National Poultry Farmers Association, readily admits that he is one of the country’s better-off land-owners. He spends much of his leisure time at Accra Polo Club, where he is captain. A colonial remnant, polo is something of an elitist sport in Africa.

Yet Quartey has suffered considerably because of the surge in imports. He keeps 100,000 birds in a battery cage system today but has had to scale down his operations by 30 percent since 2003. He has lost 250,000 dollars and had to make 50 staff redundant.

Last week, Peter Mandelson, the European commissioner for trade, claimed that the EU has no offensive interests in the EPA talks. Characterising the EPAs as a ‘‘market grab’’ is ‘‘almost bizarre, given the zero-level of interest that EU businesses have shown in these negotiations,’’ Mandelson added.

Quartey is unconvinced by this assurance. ‘‘I would expect that from him,’’ Quartey told IPS. ‘‘He has been sent to do a job by the Europeans. But I don’t see why I should believe Mandelson. Our experience has shown how ruthless the Europeans can be when they are not getting their way.’’

In 2003, a bill was brought before Ghana’s parliament that would allow the government to double the tariffs on poultry to 40 percent. Yet the bill was axed after Pascal Lamy, Mandelson’s predecessor as trade commissioner, lobbied against it.

Mandelson sent a delegation of senior EU officials to Accra in the past week, in the hope that the government could be persuaded to sign an EPA. However, the delegation left the country empty-handed.

Nonetheless, talks are to continue between the Commission’s permanent office in Accra and the government. A Commission official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that under rules for free trade agreements set by the World Trade Organisation, Ghana must open up most of its market to foreign goods.

‘‘We are looking very carefully at where openings can best be made to reach the 80 percent level, without putting industries in a weaker position,’’ the official added.

Adwoa Kwateng-Kluvitse, ActionAid’s country director for Ghana, said she was encouraged by the strong stance the Accra government has taken in discussions with the EU.

‘‘I very much hope that it can be maintained,’’ she said. ‘‘But I fear that it will not.’’

She took issue with statements by Mandelson that the EPAs will prove beneficial to economic development in Africa.

‘‘I find it interesting that someone who doesn’t come from Africa can tell us what is in our best interests,’’ she added. ‘‘It is surely more in the interest of the European Union than in Ghana’s interests to sign up to an EPA.’’

Samuel Asuming-Brempton from the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Ghana noted that farming accounts for 36 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

He advocated that the policies of liberalising its markets which Ghana has undertaken since the 1980s – under pressure from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU – should be revised, as the country has been ‘‘besieged’’ by agricultural imports.

Concerns have also been voiced recently about how unfettered free trade has held back industrial development.

A new study, undertaken at the request of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), estimated that 74 percent of all goods for sale in the country are made abroad. These include garments, processed food and wood products that could be manufactured domestically.

The study’s author, Cletus Dordunoo, has described the relentless influx of imports as ‘‘dumping’’.

Kwabena Anaman, director of research with Ghana’s Institute of Economic Affairs, said policies urged by bodies such as the World Bank and IMF have ‘‘destroyed most local industry, made us become import-dependent and driven up unemployment’’.

Accurate data on joblessness is hard to find, not least because a high number of Ghanaians survive by working in unregulated activities such as street trade. Some 600,000 young people leave school each year, with few opportunities available to them.

‘‘The private sector has simply not created jobs,’’ Anaman told IPS. ‘‘So many are walking the streets, selling things.’’