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A Member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Communications team, Nana Akomea, has backed calls for further consultations on the Legislative Instrument (L.I) that seeks to restrict the importation of some strategic products.
In the view of the Managing Director of the State Transport Company (STC), a public forum on the move would be ideal.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, November 25, he said the Trade and Industry Minister, K.T Hammond needs to convince stakeholders that “we can limit these imports and our productive capacity in the country can meet the gap which would create jobs.”
“We should go back to stakeholders who believe they haven’t been consulted and they have an input. Let’s engage them, including Parliament,” he said.
He explained that the level of importation which stands over 11 billion cedis depicts that there is a huge domestic market that the country is not meeting, hence the introduction of the L.I to bridge that gap.
According to Nana Akomea, the Minister needs to let the public know how much productive capacity we have on each of these 22 products.
“Rice, what is the demand, productive capacity? What will be the effects of restriction of imports on price? Poultry – what is the capacity as against the demand, can we meet it? Because if we don’t meet it, prices will go up and people will suffer”he noted.
According to him, although there may be some difficulties associated with the L.I such as the power granted to the Minister, it can be refined.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has presented a bill to Parliament detailing government’s intention to impose import restrictions on 22 products.
They are poultry, animal and vegetable oil, margarine, fruit drinks, soft drinks, mineral water, noodles and pasta, ceramic tiles, corrugated paper and paperboard, mosquito coils, insecticides, soaps and detergents, motor cars, iron and steel, cement, polymers (plastics and plastic products), fish, sugar, clothing and apparel, biscuits, and canned tomatoes.
However, the Minority Caucus in Parliament has mounted a strong opposition to it asking the sector Minister to withdraw for further engagement and fine-tuning.
The Minority MPs have vowed to vote against it until the right things are done.
