Due to aggressive trade and industrial policies being rolled out by Government, Ghana has projected an overall cargo throughput growth of 10 percent this year, Benonita Bismarck, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Shippers’ Authority, announced.
The projection, she says, was also premised on the introduction of the First-Port-Rule for the transit trade which will help avoid deflecting transit cargo to neighbouring West African countries’ ports.
The “First-Port-Rule” is an arrangement that allows customs officials from neighbouring landlocked countries to set desks up at Ghana’s Ports for tax collection on transit goods, which would become operational on March 1.
The World Bank had predicted the global economic growth to slow to 2.9 percent, this year.
Additionally, the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Outlook indicator for global trade growth this year is projected to slow to 3.7 per cent.
The slowdown is largely attributed to trade protectionism, tight conditions and the on-going trade war between the two biggest world economies-the United States of America and China.
As the Chinese economy grew by just 6.6 per cent in 2018 compared to 10.4 per cent in 2017, China’s impeded economic growth is likely to hold a negative impact on the global maritime industry.
Consequently, it would negatively affect Ghana’s domestic economic situation considering the Far East held the country’s largest share of International trade, with the Chinese holding more than 75 per cent share.
“While the country’s imports experienced a slow growth of 1.2 per cent in 2018, exports on the other hand, grew by 24 per cent and prospects for continued growth in the export sector are very bright in the wake of Government aggressive industrial policies”, Says Birsmark.
The Ghana Revenue Authority introduced the CTN in the third quarter of 2018 to facilitate import transaction processes for revenue assurance purposes.