Ghana has signed an interim trade agreement with the U.K., one of the last bilateral deals hanging in the balance following Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
The signed agreement restores the duty-free and quota-free access Ghanaian exporters had to the U.K. market pre-Brexit, according to a joint statement posted on the U.K. government website.
It also reinstates the preferential tariffs enjoyed by British exporters to the West African country.
“The Agreement will enter into effect following the completion of relevant internal procedures required in both Ghana and the U.K.,” both governments said in the statement.
Official data show Britain’s exports to Ghana were worth £722 million in 2019, with imports — primarily oil, fish, cocoa and fruit — totaling £498 million.
Ghana joins Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, Cameroon, Namibia, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tunisia, Eswatini and Lesotho in the list of African countries to have signed trade deals with Britain in the post-Brexit period.
Because Britain and the European Union reached a trade deal so close to the divorce transition deadline of Dec. 31, some other “continuity” deals — those intended to roll over the terms of trade the U.K. enjoyed as a member of the EU — still hang in the balance. Agreements with Albania, Algeria and Serbia are currently outstanding.
