WASHINGTON: An advisor to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mr. Franklin Belnye has kicked against the placement of ban on some selected imported items as a measure of improving Ghana’s budget deficit. Government in recent times placed a ban on a number of items including the importation of cement to protect local producers and also improve import-export imbalances.
But speaking to Citi Business News in an interview, Mr. Belnye maintained that banning some selected items could result in other countries reacting in an equal measure that may rather hurt Ghana’s trade export. “I am not really in support of banning things because first of all it goes against the international trade norms, secondly you don’t ban something when you have not develop an alternative supply,” he said. He maintained that ban of some selected items should not be seen as the only measure in correcting trade deficit and protecting local producers.
According to him, there will always be an increase in demand if measures are not properly designed before some selected items are banned. “When you do that you create shortages in the economy, I think that there should be a conscious effort to take specific products and try and expand them for export to improve our trade balance,” he stressed. He stated that Ghana has a lot of products that could be improved to add value as a measure of increasing the country’s foreign earnings.
