Government has indefinitely suspended the implementation of the Ghana Conformity Assessment Programme (G-CAP) and the Advance Shipment Information (ASHI).

Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Kweku Ricketts Hagan disclosed this on Joy FM’s business analysis programme, Business Trends on Wednesday.

“We have directed that both programmes should be suspended indefinitely. It has not been postponed, it’s been suspended indefinitely,” he told George Wiafe host of programme.

The implementation of the Ghana Conformity Assessment Program was scheduled to commence in April, 2015.
G-CAP is a conformity assessment process used to verify that products imported into Ghana meet the necessary standards at the manufacturing country of origin. The program is expected to prevent the importation of substandard and fake products onto the Ghanaian market.

The decision comes a day after business associations suspended a planned strike on Wednesday March 4 over the implementation of the two policies.

The business groups which include the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ghana Automobile Dealers Association, Food and Beverages Association of Ghana, and the Ghana Union of Traders Association have demanded a cancellation of the G-CAP and ASHI.

Other groups that kicked against the programmes are the Importers and Exporters Association, Ghana Pharmaceutical Chamber, Association of Ghana Industries, Customs Brokers Association of Ghana and Freight Forwarders Association of Ghana.

“We, however, wish to state that we remain resolute in our demands for the appropriate authorities to ensure the cancellation of the G-CAP, ASHI and also improve the current business environment,” the groups known as the Joint Private Sector Consultative Business Forum said in a statement yesterday

But government seems to have given in to the demands of the business groups by suspending the G-CAP and ASHI indefinitely.

Kweku Ricketts Hagan said the decision was taken after careful consideration of submissions by the various business groups.

“We realized that the stakeholder consultations have not been quite extensive and that further education was actually needed to really look at whether we should go ahead to implement them or not,” he said.

However works behind the scene are ongoing to find out other alternatives, the Deputy Trade Minister stated.