The call was made in a statement signed by Mr Alpha Shaban, the General Secretary of GUTA and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday. It said the cost of doing business in the country was increasingly unbearable and, therefore, the trading community was no longer prepared to accept any additional cost.

The statement said: “The question that arises here is that, why should importer and exporter should be charged for the fumigation of the container when the container is part of the shipping line’s equipment.

“The shipper only fills the container that has been delivered to him/her in a certain environmental condition. Therefore if someone must be responsible for the fumigation of the exterior of the container, it must be the shipping line and not the shipper.”

It said the members of GUTA have always complied with the requirement of fumigation at the country of origin and provided certificate for the clearance of cargo. “We also wish to state that the proposed fumigation exercise, which is to take place at the entry and exit points in the ports, would seriously negate the Vice-President’s paperless policy objective of clearing cargo within four hours at the port.

“This is because the fumigation process is going to be additional physical impedance to the clearance process at the ports. Shippers are still grappling with the scanning process, which contributes to congestion at the ports only for an additional process such as fumigation to be added,” the statement said.

It said: “We do not fathom why a service to be rendered in Ghana would be charged in United States dollars. This is unnecessary exposure of Ghana’s economy to foreign exchange pressure that must not be allowed.” The statement said the fumigation activity at the ports gave a cause to doubt, adding that; “If this is to prevent cross border transfer of diseases, then we do not see why the fumigation is only on the exterior and not the interior of the container or vehicle as we are being told.”

It said the GUTA was not sure about what happened to the cargo, container and or vehicle from the stevedoring process through the transfer, through holding areas and scanning, among others, before fumigation was carried out.

“We believe that whatever disease transfer that is being prevented by the fumigation exercise would have spread through human and other contacts before the exit point. If indeed the objective is to prevent cross border transfer of diseases and all countries are expected to implement these regulations, why should the fumigation cover exports, since the importing country is expected to take the necessary measures as well.”

The statement said if the fumigation exercise could not guarantee the transfer, spread, outbreak of diseases, and even epidemics, then the process was an unnecessary intrusion into the clearance process at the ports and must be stopped immediately. “We believe that this is just another unnecessary drain on the national economy to support other economies if even a Ghanaian company cannot undertake a simple exercise as fumigation of exterior of containers,” it said.

The statement said the measures outlined in the International Health Regulations (IHR), which was being referred to by the Ghana Health Service were only recommendations that needed to be adopted to suit national conditions. “There are many recommendations in the IHR that can be adapted to address the problem of cross border transfer of diseases without unnecessarily jeopardizing our efforts at facilitating trade at the ports,” it said.