A vetting committee consisting of nine members has recently been constituted in Accra on April 14, to serve as an information clearing house for imports of African Textile Prints and to exercise a check over flooding of counterfeit textiles in the country.
Besides, the committee would even inspect all the imported textile prints to ensure that these are not imitation of the original textiles manufactured in Ghana with respect to the quality, logo, designs and stamps of the Ghana Standards Board.
Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hanna Tetteh, while announcing formation of the committee said that, it should verify that the designs imported are not those already present in the Ghanaian markets and owned by the Ghanaian designers.
She even raised concern over the threat posed to the Ghanaian textile industry and employment by influx of counterfeit textiles which are being illegally imported in the Ghanaian markets without paying requisite customs duties and other taxes, and are being sold at cheaper rates than domestic textiles.
Such unlawful acts are not only risking the domestic manufacturing businesses, but are pushing them to the edge.
Over 70 percent of the textiles being sold in the Ghanaian market are those that importers have illegally imported by evading taxes, Ms Tetteh necessitated introduction of firm corrective measures before the situation completely goes out of hand.
Also, she pushed the members of the committee to adopt a professional approach and work in interest of the country, while serving interest of all the parties including the government, producers and consumers of these items.
She revealed that, during the initial three months of the current year, around 2,000 counterfeit textiles were seized from Akosombo, Kumasi, Accra and Mankessim, some of which were destroyed.
Ms Tetteh said that, such practices posed a threat to continued existence of the last three textile factories of Ghana, and thus sought help for protecting the intellectual property and ingenuity of the Ghanaian textiles.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
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