The Minority Caucus in Parliament has come under fire from Trade and Industry Minister KT Hammond for impeding the Export and Import (Restrictions on Importation of Selected Strategic Products) Regulations 2023.

The legislative instrument, which mandates that importers of 22 restricted items obtain licenses from a committee chaired by the Minister of Trade and Industry, was blocked by the Minority.

Speaking at the Accra International Conference Centre to mark the opening of the third edition of the Made in Ghana Bazaar, KT Hammond claimed that John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the NDC, had openly endorsed the policy despite the Minority’s rejection.

“In keeping with their preferred political philosophy of triangulation, which is the opportunistic adoption of political positions for situational advantage, the opposition party took up arms. They wouldn’t permit me to lay my paper, even though Article 11 of our Constitution granted me absolute authority, but horror of horrors.

“Just a little while after his party members in opposition had threatened to cause the heavens to fall if my legislative instrument was not withdrawn, the opposition party’s flagbearer and former president, John Dramani Mahama, made a public declaration, a pronouncement that in the very remotest possibility that his party ever won elections again in Ghana, he would introduce the same import restrictions in Parliament.

“What can I say for logic? Opportunism scruples in this opposition party which is bound to remain in opposition.”