Ghana, Burkina Faso to engage in trade talks

A two-day sub-regional durbar, to deliberate on the issues of trade between Ghana and Burkina Faso, has been held at Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana District of the Upper East Region.

The programme was organised by the Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition (GTLC), a civil society organization, and a social think-tank group working towards the enhancement of trade and livelihood development in the country.

It seeks to strengthen tomato trade liberalisation between tomato farmers in the two West African countries, for the efficient sale of fresh tomato, which is being produced in the two countries.

It was to also help fine-tune the adoption of a proposed tomato joint venture, between Ghana and Burkina Faso in future.

In a speech, the Coordinator of the Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition (GTLC), Ibrahim Akalbila, lamented over the numerous challenges confronting the tomato trade between Ghana and Burkina Faso, and hoped the programme would go a long way to strengthen the needed bilateral relations of the two countries.

He noted that last year's tomato glut experienced in the Upper East Region was due to the inability of farmers and policy makers from the two countries to take maximum advantage of the existing agricultural potentials, and to ensure appropriate management of resources in the two countries.

Mr. Akalbila indicated that figures compiled by the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), within the 2008/2009 season, recorded that about 6,562.43 metric tonnes of tomato was brought from neighboring countries into Ghana by traders.

He therefore entreated policy makers of both countries to engage themselves on a win-win situation, so as to help realise the ECOWAS vision of free movement of goods and services, to effectively push forward the agenda of sub-regional integration in Africa.