Ghana’s trade negotiation team is making effort with the West African sub-region to consider locally assembled vehicles from Ghana into its tariff offer.

If accepted, locally assembled vehicles could be part of either the 90 per cent duty-free goods or classified as sensitive with its tariff as other products in that class.

Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is expected to begin January next year.

With few months to begin the implementation of the Agreement, Ghana is expected to join the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) in submitting a uniform tariff offer for consideration.

According to Assistant Commissioner in charge of AfCFTA affairs, Fechin Akoto, the discussion on the automobile industry has been on the table of the team from Ghana.

The move is part of plans by government to give local manufacturers a bigger market thereby attracting more investment into the industry.

“At the negotiation table, we were looking at where to put our automobile industry so that our locally assembled vehicles can trade under the Trade Agreement but I can’t tell whether it will be accepted for now or not,” he said.

He has also been highlighting some challenges faced by the team during the negotiations process.

Ghana has joined the league of vehicle assembly nations after the German automaker, Volkswagen began assembling cars in the country in addition to the locally owned Kantanka Automobile.