The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has admonished ECOWAS members and other stakeholders to fully comply with trade laws and protocols.

The clarion call comes after some member countries including Ghana and Nigeria have been involved in a trade impasse for months.

President of GUTA, Dr Joseph Obeng has since renewed calls for ECOWAS member countries to strictly obey rules governing trade activities.

Addressing participants during a virtual seminar organised by IMANI Africa, Dr Obeng stressed such trade impasses could be avoided if all ECOWAS members complied to the rules and trade protocols.

“It’s not that we are giving anybody unhindered access to Ghana. Now that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement is open, let all Ghanaian youth who want to trade go to South Africa, if they are 1 million in number, let them all go. Are they going to be allowed to trade? No!” he lamented.

“They have controls, and so these controls, rules and engagements in these protocols is what we have to follow and that is all that we are demanding as citizens,” Dr Obeng advised.

President of the Nigerian Union of Traders in Ghana, Chukwuemeka Nnaji on his part says governments of the various ECOWAS states need to collaborate towards harmonizing rule and protocols that govern trade activities.

“If a Nigerian living in Ghana should not have access to trade, what is the essence of the ECOWAS treaty? Why are we having protocols? Every country to country has bilateral relationships. But it looks like Nigeria and Ghana do not have any bilateral relationship. I think we should move forward to have one strong West African community than all this divide and rule that we are doing,” Chukwuemeka Nnaji stressed.

In December 2019, the Ghana Union of Traders (GUTA) locked up over six hundred shops belonging to Nigerian retailers at Nkrumah Circle in Accra.