The FDA And GSA Turf War: Can Someone Tell Us Who Does What?

In our main story today, we have carried a story on a new policy that the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) is planning to implement with effect from October 1, 2014.

It is the Ghana Conformity Assessment Program (G-CAP). In this program, the Authority has given full monopoly to one company to begin pre-shipment inspection of all imports and exports and to grant Certificates of Conformity before any of these goods or services can be processed.

Ghana moved away from the pre-shipment module in and 1990s and introduced the Destination Inspection Companies (DICs) who have since held the responsibility to inspect all goods at our ports for a fee. So we are surprised that after nearly twenty years, some state institutions are taking the country back to the pre-shipment era even though destination inspection remain in place.

Only last year the Foods and Drugs Authority (FDA) introduced pre-shipment inspection and went further to tax all suppliers of goods twenty thousand US dollars to enable the Authority travel to the various countries of origin to inspect their goods. The SCANDAL is not sure if this twenty thousand dollar levy was discussed and approved in Parliament but it is now a levy that all suppliers have to comply with.

Now out of the blue the GSA has also developed their own Ghana Conformity Assessment program and will now have one single company do all pre-shipment inspection of all these goods and grant conformity certificates to the suppliers. The program is to take effect from October 1, 2014. The GSA intends to charge between 200 (twenty) US dollars to 300 (three hundred) US dollarsas verification fees, 375 (three hundred and seventy-five) US dollars as registration fees for the first 15 (fifteen) product lines or items and 20 (twenty) US dollars for every additional product line or item.

We have taken our time to study the GSA's guidelines for imports for trade. We have also taken our time to study the FDA's guideline establishing food industries or for the registration of pre-packaged foods. The guidelines are the same and the both come with costs to the businesses that eventually pass on these costs to the consumer. Let no one tell us that this new GSA policy is intended to conform to World Trade Organization's (WTO) rules. Ghana is not in breach of any WTO rules. FDA, EPA and all the other Government Agencies have satisfied them already.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Port Health Services all have similar guidelines for different fees. So our question is why this duplication and unnecessary cost additions which the consumer is made to suffer? In these times of economic hardship and escalating cost of living the last thing one expects from these Agencies is to take actions that can only further aggravate the situation.

There appears to be an unannounced competition between the FDA and the GSA to show who has more power and in the process the consumers are the victims in this turf war. By the way did the Cabinet approve of this action of the GSA and did Parliament approve of these levies?

We are told that it was only last week that the GSA hurriedly met with the Parliamentary select Committee on Trade and Industry to discuss the new policy but we know that that Committees on its own cannot approve new taxes or levies in this country. And yet October 1, 2014 is the commencement date for the policy. Is anyone in control of things in this country?