The Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana is appealing to customs, GCNET, WestBlue and all Trade Facilitation Partners to provide importers and exporters with robust systems to effectively and efficiently expedite their cargo clearance at the ports, this year.

In its New Year statement, the association said “it is our hope and prayer that, issues such as the prolonged system downtimes, which was experienced from 27 to 31 December 2019, on the Pre-Arrival Assessment and Reporting System (PAARS) managed by WESTBLUE, and resulted in non-processing of not a single CCVR at some collection centers, will be a thing of the past.”

The Association, therefore, reminded customs and their I.T solution providers hitherto GCNET and WestBlue that system downtimes and its resultant delays, impact negatively on importers and exporters, adding “for an election Year, we will have zero tolerance for such situations.”

It also assured its members, the business and general trading public to continue to have hope and keep their businesses and trade portfolios active although 2020 is an election year.

“Ghana has seen many peaceful and largely incident-free elections, and the 2020 election will be no exception”, it noted.

It wished its members, stakeholders and the general trading community a safe, healthy and prosperous new year.