The Leather-based and Footwear Affiliation stated in Kumasi that whereas importers face a 5% tariff on Chinese language-made completed sneakers by declaring them as rubber waste, Ghanaian producers pay 36.1% on the uncooked materials.
This tax arbitrage, not simply Chinese language costs, is on the coronary heart of why the affiliation claims the native business is headed for collapse and why it requires customs officers at ports forward of tariff reform anyplace else.
Chairman of the Ghana Leather-based and Footwear Producers Affiliation (GLFMA), Gilbert Akwasi Ntim, stated at a press convention on Tuesday, Could 26, that Ghana Statistics Authority and United Nations Peer Commerce statistics present that China provides greater than 70 per cent of the footwear offered in Ghana between 2024 and 2025, with imports valued at greater than $40 million, whereas the nation’s footwear exports are lower than $1 million.
The actual hole could also be a lot deeper than the affiliation’s personal numbers counsel. Based on China’s export information compiled within the United Nations commerce database, footwear shipments to Ghana had been price $345 million in 2024 alone, roughly eight occasions the import worth cited on the Kumasi press convention. Commerce economists typically interpret such mirror discrepancies as a mixture of classification variations, transit commerce, and under-declaration at receiving ports, which might lend weight to the affiliation’s central grievance about customs leakage.
The calculation of that grievance is harsh. Though imports of completed sneakers are legally topic to a 35% customs responsibility, Nitim claimed that some importers misclassified container a great deal of Chinese language completed sneakers as rubber scrap or waste and paid solely 5%. In distinction, native producers shall be topic to a ten% tariff on uncooked supplies comparable to artificial rubber sheets, adhesives, and leather-based chemical compounds, however the tariff will rise to roughly 36.1% as soon as worth added tax, medical insurance, and training fund tax are utilized by means of the built-in customs administration system. “This can be a reversal of justice,” Ntim stated.
The affiliation, a registered affiliation of artisans and manufacturing facility homeowners with greater than 25,000 members, says a decade of low-cost imports has worn out greater than 30 p.c of the market share as soon as held by domestically made footwear, pressured producers in Kumasi, Accra and Takoradi to shut, and deepened unemployment for vocational graduates educated in leatherwork.
The rescue plan targets the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, the Ghana Income Authority Customs Division, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, the Ghana Funding Promotion Centre, the Export-Import Financial institution of Ghana and the Ghana Trade Affiliation. The proposals embrace greater tariffs on artificial leather-based and completed items from exterior the African Continental Free Commerce Space, stricter port inspections to stop misclassification, and 0 tariffs on chosen uncooked supplies, which Nitim stated would cut back manufacturing prices by 60% and permit sneakers made in Ghana to compete on worth.
The group additionally needs the nation to set an instance with a compulsory coverage directing the Ghana Armed Forces, the Nationwide Police Service and the Ghana Schooling Authority to solely purchase sneakers from licensed native producers. The federal government has been right here earlier than: Nitim identified {that a} comparable procurement directive issued in 2025 was not successfully carried out, a element that explains the affiliation’s skeptical stance on new commitments.
A nationwide “Purchase Ghanaian Footwear” marketing campaign and reasonably priced financing by means of the Ghana Export-Import Financial institution will complement demand. The affiliation warned that with out immediate motion, its members might stage public demonstrations to make their case.
