Ghana is expected to work closely with the Chinese government as part of a new strategy to combat the importation of pirated Ghanaian textiles from China.
This comes after several calls on government to tackle the widespread pirating of Ghanaian textile designs in China at a bilateral level.
According to the immediate past Minister of Trade and Industry, Haruna Iddrisu, the Ministry “will engage our embassy in China and the Chinese authorities in Ghana to check pirating of Ghanaian textile designs… accordingly, we will engage in some diplomatic maneuvering in handling this matter but to let them appreciate that they must play within the rules and respect our laws.”
Representatives of the Trade Ministry and the taskforce recently completed a nationwide sensitization exercise to educate market women on the dangers involved in dealing in pirated textiles.
Thus, a 17-member reconstituted anti-textile piracy task force has been inaugurated to flush out traders involved in the illicit business.
Speaking at the inauguration of the taskforce, Haruna Iddrissu said some compensation would be paid to informants that help in the arrest of the criminals.
“We would also reward informants who give leads for us to arrest the big fishes engaged in the pirating of local textile designs. I don’t rule out sometimes some conspiracy and collusion by some of our own persons engaging and relating to those foreign counterpart to engage in this illegality,’’ he added.
The taskforce is expected to commence work effective July 29, 2014.
The taskforce include representatives from the Trade Ministry, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Ghana Standards Board, the Ghana Police Service, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Ghana National Chamber Of Commerce and Industries, the Ghana Union of Traders Association, National Security Council , Akosombo textile limited ,Tex style limited ,Printex Ghana limited , Textile Garment and Leather Employees Union , textile importers and distributors association , association of small scale textile producers .
The Ministry also assigned the former chairman of the taskforce, Mr. Appiah Donyina, as an advisor to the current taskforce to ensure institutional memory.
Addressing the media after the inauguration, chairman of the Anti-textile Piracy Task Force, DSP Samuel Naa Musa said they will learn from the mistakes of the previous taskforce and work within their mandate.
By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana