Ghana exports to US hit $222m annually

Ghana is said to be the 4th largest export destination for the United States (US).

Trade figures between the US and Ghana showed that Ghana exports $222 million worth of products to the US each year, while it imports $609 million worth of products from the US each year, making the US Ghana's 4th largest source of imports.

Speaking at a reception to commemorate the 233rd Independence Anniversary of the United States of America, the US Ambassador to Ghana, H. E. Donald Teitelbaum, further disclosed that the US was the second largest source of Foreign Direct Investments to Ghana.

According to the Ambassador, “We share the values of democracy. We visit each other. We study together. These are actions that speak louder than words, and they speak of a long and deep friendship.”

Mr. Teitelbaum intimated that 18,507 Ghanaians visited America last year, whilst 59,041 Americans visited Ghana. Currently, 2,219 Ghanaians are studying in America, and 378 US citizens are also studying in Ghana, and many more students visit Ghana on study trips each year.

He called on politicians of the various divides in Ghana to collaborate with the ruling government to enable it move the country forward.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms. Hannah Tetteh, who represented the Government of Ghana, observed that the peaceful democratic change of government in the country had attracted international attention recognition, as a beacon of democracy in Africa.

She intimated: “We are mindful of the fact that our destiny lies in hands. However, in an era of the ever-increasing global interdependence, no country is capable of succeeding on its own.

It is, therefore gratifying to acknowledge the decision by the Obama administration to embrace key objects of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to halve extreme global poverty and hunger, by doubling US foreign assistance.”

Indeed, over the years, the United States has, through various ways, supported, and promoted democratic governance and economic growth through trade and private development, as well as human capacity building, rural-urban development and healthcare support programmes in Ghana.

Furthermore, the US development assistance, through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), was making a sterling performance in Ghana, through training to augment food security, providing credit to farmers to multiply their business, rehabilitating existing roads, and constructing new ones to help farmers have access to markets, and building of schools to educate children in the country.

According to the Trade Minister, Ghana was making strenuous efforts, not only to grow its economy, but also to integrate it into the global market place.

To ensure the success of our people-centred development agenda, there was the need to shift from a rural-based economy to a modern industry-based one, she emphasised.

As the country intensifies its efforts to achieve the MDGs by 2015, the government has adopted practical measures, namely, the Capitation Grant, Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), to increase access to education and healthcare service delivery in Ghana.

Ms. Tetteh used the occasion to appeal to the US to collaborate with the relevant agencies in Ghana, to put in place potent measures to curtail the rising incidence of trans-border crime, especially the upsurge in drug trafficking and its concomitant impact in the world.