Govt Deals With Substandard Goods

The Government has introduced specific regulations to address persistent quality challenges of goods in specific industries, Minister of Trade and Industry, K. T. Hammond has indicated.

“This, most recently, includes the laying of a Legislative Instrument (LI) for regulating and enforcing standards in the cement industry, in addition to the existing Import and Export (Restriction of the importation of Portland Cement) Regulation, 2016 (LI 2240) for the granting of import permits to address import surges of Portland Cement,” he said.

Responding to questions on the floor of Parliament, Mr. Hammond assured that the Ministry would continue to address the “issue of substandard goods in our market with three principal regulatory measures.”

“First, we do so through improved market surveillance and enhanced enforcement by the Ghana Standards Authority, strengthened with Trading Standards Inspectors under the new GSA Act,” he noted.

According to him, the GSA will continue to play a frontline role in regulating the quality and standards of goods in the domestic market.

“The GSA has successfully conducted market surveillance this year on cement, electrical cables, automotive batteries, spare parts and LPG cylinders.

“This will be expanded more extensively in terms of product range and geographical reach across the country,” he asserted.

“Secondly, through the mechanisms of the Ghana International Trade Commission (GITC) Act, 2016 (Act 926) and its implementation of the three basic regulations enacted in this regard, namely the GITC (Anti-Dumping) Regulations, 2019 (LI 2380), GITC (Safeguards Measures) Regulation, 2020 (LI 2026) and GITC (Subsidy and Countervailing Measures) Regulation, 2020 (LI 2425),” he said.

The Minister pointed out that the Commission could be petitioned to trigger an investigation when there is sufficient evidence of the existence of dumping that causes injury or a threat of material injury to the domestic industry.

“Having made a determination, an Anti-Dumping Duty is imposed where dumping causes material injury to a domestic industry producing a like product or directly competitive product,” he said.