Ghana, Czech Republic worried about U.S. tariffs imposition

 Ghana and the Czech Republic have expressed worry over the imposition of tariffs of various per­centages on goods exported into the United States of America.

They warned that the unilateral imposition of the tariffs by the Donald Trump-led government could disrupt internation­al trade relations and harm economies.

At a joint press conference with the Presi­dent of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, who is on a three-day state visit to Ghana, in Accra on Tuesday, President John Dramani Mahama said the decision by the US gov­ernment, without recourse to a consistent trade-based framework, could undermine international cooperation and development.

“Many of the factories that have set up here might look for areas where they can receive cheaper tariffs to be able to export into the American market. So it has very severe implications for everybody,” President Mahama stated.

The world, he noted, had become a global village and decisions like the imposition of tariffs should have taken into consider­ation the impact it would have on the world economy.

“I believe that a multilateral world serves us all better than a unilateral one, where peo­ple just make decisions based on only their own country. We must look at global interest and partnership rather than our national interest,” President Mahama said.

Describing the decision as “brutal” and “unfortunate”, President Pavel said the world would be the loser.

“I think imposing tariffs in such a way doesn’t help the situation in the U.S., Europe, and other countries. Tariffs are damaging everyone. In my view, it is unfortunate to impose such a wave of tariffs without nego­tiating,” President Pavel said.

He wants the world to collectively impress on the United States to rethink this approach and to renegotiate.

“I think that through negotiation, we can achieve results that will be beneficial for the United States but also not to destroy other countries.

“By damaging other countries so much, it will create many problems that will have to be dealt with later on and that may be more costly than reducing the pressure on tariffs,” he stated.

In a policy shift, the US government intro­duced tariffs ranging from 10 to 50 per cent on imports from a number of countries.

Enacted through an Executive Order under the International Emergency Eco­nomic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), the US argued the tariffs were necessary to address economic and national security threats which stem from persistent trade deficits.

 BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI

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