The Ministry of Trade and Industry has inaugurated a 12-member vetting committee to help facilitate the work of the Anti-Textile Piracy Taskforce.

In an interview with Accra-based Starr FM, the Deputy Trade Minister Carlos Ahenkora said that the inauguration of the vetting committee will enhance the fight against pirated textiles onto the market.

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“When the task force arrests the textile material, a committee needs to identify whether the materials are pirated, counterfeited or uncustomed.”

“So what we did with this new task force that was formed… we give them a term of reference that included issuing or issuance of detention receipt when they seize anything,” he added.

He added that after a trader's cloths are seized, he or she is expected to appear before the vetting committee within fourteen days with the issuance detention receipt to determine whether the seizure was right or wrong.

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“We don’t want to do things to disenfranchise anybody because we are all Ghanaians and we all have a right to live, right to trade and a right to business.”

The inauguration comes barely a month after the textile workers union hit the street to demonstrate against the influx of fake textiles unto the market.

The textile industry which used to employ about 27.000 workers in the 70’s now employs less 3.000 as a result of the collapse of textile firms.