MONROVIA – Eggs, onions, frozen fish, meat and other staple food are running out of stock on the Liberian market due to the Ministry of Commerce’s refusal to sign Import Permit Declaration to allow businesses bring in their goods.
FrontPageAfrica has gathered that almost 800 containers of staple food are stuck at the Free Port of Monrovia due to the Ministry’s action.
This situation is not only causing shortage of these staple foods on the market but also killing a lot of businesses and causing Liberians employed with these businesses to lose their jobs.
As a result, the affected local and foreign owned businesses are appealing to President George Weah to intervene in the Ministry’s action against them.
They believe that the Ministry is deliberately giving monopoly over frozen foods to a particular enterprise at the detriment of the majority and the Liberian people.
FrontPageAfrica has on several occasions sought comment from the Ministry of Commerce on why it is still demanding IPDs when Executive Order 103 issued last December exempted commercial importers from seeking IPDs.
The Executive Order stated, “All Commercial Importers of goods into Liberia are exempted from seeking Import Permits and filling Import Permit Declarations. In lieu of the Import Permit Declaration (IPD), the Import Notification Form (INF) is now being used as an administrative document to collect trade statistical data to monitor the inflow and outflow of goods and facilitate trade in the Commerce of Liberia.”
Executive Order 103 was intended to stimulate economic growth.
FrontPageAfrica also gathered that as a result of the monopoly, the market has been swamped with expired products – something which sources say the Ministry of Commerce is aware of but has deliberately decided to do nothing.
The importers of frozen food have expressed fears that their businesses will collapse if President Weah fails to intervene – something they believe will be contrary to the Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.