GUTA calls off its nationwide demonstration

The Ghana Union of Traders Associations (GUTA) has called off their nationwide strike which was supposed to take effect Wednesday, July 29, 2020.

President of the Association, Dr Obeng, explained that the cancellation of the exercise comes after the Trade Ministry met with the national executives to find a lasting solution to prevent the operation of illegal foreign retail traders in the country.

He, therefore, appealed to all members to adhere to the directive and not close down any illegal foreign retailers’ shop on Wednesday whiles they await feedback from the Ministry.

Dr Obeng added that GUTA will monitor the work of the committee mandated by government to deal with the influx of illegal foreign traders on the Ghanaian market.

In an interview with GhanWeb, he explained that “The national executives of GUTA met and decided to close down all recalcitrant illegal foreigners’ shops on Wednesday. Because the Trade Minister met with us on Thursday, July 23, 2020, and assured us that we should allow the task force to work, we are pleading with our members to respect the directives of the minister. We have confidence in authority so they should not carry out the intended closure of the shops”.

The Trade Ministry, together with its task force embarked on a documentation check exercise at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle last month.

It appeared that 90 percent of the foreign traders who submitted their documents for review at Circle did not meet the requirement to operate in the country.

But after the exercise, some headstrong traders went back to continue trading.