Former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Ocquaye, has called for a ban on the importation of some selected products including foreign juice, chicken and other agric products.
According to him, the country ought to restructure its economy to be self-reliant in terms of feeding itself.
Speaking at the launch of the 60th anniversary celebration of the Department Of Political Science at the University of Ghana on Friday, July 22, Professor Mike Ocquaye wondered if citizens will be left to perish if something bigger than Covid-19 and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which has disrupted global supply chains, occurs.
He asked that companies that are into agriculture be given special attention in order to curtail postharvest losses.
“We should look at our agro-based industries to process, store and distribute food, juices etc. How can the mangoes [be] rotten in Mangoase, Dodowa etc and the other fruits in other parts of Ghana rot whiles we languish? We need to industrialize.
“Produce more by agric and preserve them. Ladies and Gentlemen, this brings us to the WTO [World Trade Organisation] arrangement which allows the free dumping of finished products in the developing nation. No industrialized nation in the world today by its history grew to that status without isolating itself.
“Therefore, by way of serious political economy studies, we should have to close our gates and lock out all these products that are dumped upon us as against the directives of the WTO. I emphasize that the right to protect infant industries is a global human right. Foreign juices, foreign chicken and other agric products should be banned to save our nations here in Africa,” Professor Mike Ocqu
