The European Union said it plans to use Ghana’s market as a target to reach the other countries in the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS region.

The EU is working closely with Ghana to further diversify and expand the country’s production and export particularly in the Agric sector where Ghana has so much potential.

This was disclosed by the European Union Ambassador to Ghana, William Hanna at the first meeting of the joint committee on the implementation of the Interim Economic Partnership Agreement, IEPA.

In an interview with JoyBusiness, Ambassador Hanna said that the EU is in the process of working with some investors from the region to take advantage of Ghana’s business potentials.

“The IEPA has all the ingredients to support Ghana’s homegrown beyond aid strategy designed to encourage more investment and competitive private sector.” Ambassador Hanna said.

Background to the ACP/EU relation 

In December 2007, Ghana and the EU initialled an Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (IEPA) in Accra, which provides a framework for trade in goods only between the two parties. 

The IEPA was necessitated by the looming deadline for the previous agreement that governed trade and aid relations between the ACP countries and the EU. 

The previous agreement, known as the Cotonou Agreement, had been in existence since 2000. The Cotonou Agreement was preceded by four Lome Accords. 

These agreements set the terms for trade between the EU and ACP from the post-colonial period of the late 1950s up to 2007. 

A special feature of these agreements was their being underpinned by the so-called ‘special relationship’ between the EU and the ACP Countries, which among other things, sought to grant ACP Countries preferential access to the EU market.