Samson Awingobit is the Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana
The Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana (IEAG) has called on the government to fast-track agreement talks with the United States of America (US) on the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Samson Asaki Awingobit, who made the call during the 2025 Customer Service Week Celebration of the Tema Port, said since the expiration of the AGOA, Ghanaian exporters exporting goods to the USA are made to pay the 15 percent tariffs imposed under the President Trump administration.
He said even though President John Dramani Mahama has announced that his government was negotiating with the USA over the 15 percent tariffs and the renewal of the AGOA, the exporters were facing the challenge of having to pay for the tariff.
“Ghanaian exporters embarking on the US market are being made to pay the 15 percent, I have heard the President say that the government of Ghana is working with the US government, but I think it is too slow; many of the importers and exporters have reached out to me to say that they are paying the 15 percent.”
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Awingobit explained that such a development meant Ghana would lose some revenue, as it would mean “the desire to ensure that more than 90 percent boxes bringing imports to Ghana should not return empty without Ghana’s exports will not be met.”
“We don’t want them to come with imports and go out empty; the government also needs hard currency to work. We will be losing revenue; our biggest market for exports is the US. Can we do something and get this thing done quickly to avoid us going into a hard currency problem again?” he stressed.
According to him, it was the export money being injected into the economy that was helping the country, emphasising that “I know the President is pushing for us to export more into the Chinese market; it’s a new market, and I am told they have given us zero tariff, but yet our eyes are still on the US market.”
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