Ghana is expected to work closely with China as part of a strategy to combat the import of pirated Ghanaian textiles from China.This comes after several calls on governments to tackle the widespread pirating of Ghanaian textile designs in China at a bilateral level.

A 17-member anti-textile piracy task force has been constituted to flush out traders involved in the illicit business. Some compensation would be paid to informants that help in the arrest of criminals. Informants who give leads leading to the arrest of big fishes engaged in the pirating of local textile designs would be rewarded.

A taskforce has been formed. It will conduct a nationwide sensitization exercise to educate market women on the dangers involved in dealing in pirated textiles. Ghanaian textile firms are struggling to stay ahead as cheap Chinese imitations of traditional African designs are flooding their market and are being sold at vastly-reduced rates.

This is forcing designers in Ghana to work doubly hard to stay ahead. They go to a market and see the designs they have made have been copied. Just one quarter of Ghanaian demand for African prints is met by locally produced textiles - a situation that is attributed to smuggled Chinese imitations. Sales have fallen by between 50 and 75 per cent as customers buy Chinese copies of locally produced designs.