Scrap Fumigation Fees At Ports

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has vehemently kicked against its members paying for the cost of disinfection of imports and exports goods at seaports, airport and the various points of entry and exit.

According to the union, the process would overburden them with additional costs that they are not ready to bear.

The President of GUTA, Dr Joseph Obeng has therefore called on government to completely scrap the fumigation fees at the country’s ports.

“What we seek by this is that, the containers that are going to be fumigated are not our property. It belongs to the shipping lines so, we don’t see why we should be charged,” he said.

Speaking to Radio Gold’s Maritime Trade and Transport News, Dr Obeng lamented over current cost of doing business adding that they are already looking for a way out of the outstanding high cost of clearing goods at the port.

“So, all that we are saying is that we are not going to bear any cost with regards this fumigation…to whether the whole exercise is worth doing, it’s for government and its technical people at the ministry of health to think through,” he stressed.

Some freight forwarders earlier in the year had ward off the fumigation exercise citing unnecessary cost and delays.

Background

Ghana is to have begun the decontamination of all goods imported into the country. This initiative by Government under the auspices of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) is to ensure that all goods are germ and disease free and safe for use.

The exercise is in line with laid-down bio-security measures of the International Health Regulations (IHR) and comes at a time when the country needs to be hands-on in dealing with the issue of public health.

GHS ahead of the exercise had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with LCB Worldwide―a crisis management and prevention firm to undertake the project.

The company was expected to deploy a total of 8 tunnels at the port of Tema and Takoradi to carry out the disinfection of containers and other goods.

Trucks hauling imported cargo would have to drive through the tunnel-like scanners where organic chemicals would be sprayed on the goods.

This would eliminate any hazardous or infectious disease before the goods get onto the market or to the consignee.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]