CPP will address balance of trade issues - Duncan

Mr. Ekow Duncan, Director of Operations for the Convention People's Party (CPP), on Tuesday said if elected into power, the Party would improve the terms of trade between Ghana and its partners in order to address balance of trade deficits and related issues.

Mr Duncan said while he appreciated financial assistance to developing countries by western partners, these loans later turned to be huge burdens on recipients because of high expenditure due to inflation, leading to poor terms of trade and poverty.

He was speaking at a seminar organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs for CPP office holders and its aspiring parliamentary candidates drawn from the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo Regions.

The seminar was under the theme: “Towards An Understanding of Party ideology, organisation, strategy and issues for election 2008.”

Mr. Duncan said the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, stood vehemently against colonialism and to date is recognised worldwide as the world's authority in colonialism.

“It is in this light that Nkrumah constructed lots of warehouses across the country for the storage of cocoa so there can be the supply management of raw materials to control the marketing and pricing of the commodity on the international market,” he stated.

He intimated the need for change in Ghana and said the CPP was ready to lead that change by focusing on agriculture and the manufacturing industry, and import substitution.