----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Mensah" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 12:37 PM
Subject: [unioNews] ECOWAS leaders urged to remove trade barriers
> <H3>ECOWAS Leaders Urged To Remove Trade Barriers</H3>
> <B><i>Leaders of the Economic Community of West Africa States
> (ECOWAS) have been urged to remove trade barriers under the ECOWAS
> Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) to create a congenial environment
> for investment in the sub-region.</i></B>
>
>
> The removal of the barriers, it is hoped would create a huge common
> ECOWAS market to eliminate the unattractive small market, the
> individual sub-regional countries hold.
>
> Mr Narayanan Penkaj, the Administrative Controller of the West
> African Cement Company (WACEM) in Tablegbo in Togo said these when
> answering questions on what ECOWAS countries should do to attract
> investment during an interview with journalists last monday at Aflao,
> in the Volta Region.
>
> Mr Penkaj who attended the launch of a new cement grade 42.5 Newton
> (N) by the Diamond Cement Ghana Limited (DCGL), a sister company at
> Aflao said the inability of ECOWAS countries to adhere to the ETLS
> policy is not healthy for investment attraction. He said there is a
> competition in the investment market and any country or region which
> failed to seek investment prudently, shall not have it.
>
> Mr Penkaj said their company's limestone quarry in Tablegbo produces
> 1.2 million tons of clinker per year of which Togo could consume only
> 300,000 tons. He said they entered the ECOWAS market and established
> four cement production companies in Togo, Ghana and Burkina Faso
> because they felt the ETLS scheme will enable them to move the raw
> materials and cement products but wondered why the ECOWAS countries
> decided to re-introduce export duties on companies producing in the
> sub-region.
>
> Mr Penkaj said the presence of other groupings within the ECOWAS
> particularly the francophone zone was responsible for the difficulty
> in the implementation of the ECOWAS protocols and called for a common
> monitoring system. He warned that the African Growth and Opportunity
> Act (AGOA) would remain a mirage and utopian unless the impediments
> to trade and investments were removed.
>
> Mr Penkaj described the AGOA concept as lucrative and attractive but
> said ECOWAS has the right investment and environment for companies to
> effectively operate successfully. "There is no way they can compete
> with companies in the advanced countries in the AGOA market," he
> said.
>
> Mr Penkaj said the company would remain in the cement industry as
> long as there are building and construction going on and would
> therefore, inject extra capital into the sub-region when necessary.
>
> Source: GNA 14/01/04
>
>
>
>
>
> lllll
> QUOTATION:
>
> "All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishments of an African
empire, so strong and powerful as to compel the respect of mankind, but we
in our lifetime can so work and act as to make the dream a possibility
within another generation"
> -<html><A HREF="http://members.aol.com/GhanaUnion/afrohero.html">Ancestor
Marcus Mosiah Garvey <i>(1887 - 1940)</i></A></html>
>
> llllllllll
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