The Ministry of Trade and Industry is to work with Destination Inspection Companies to ensure that Toyota vehicles which have been identified to be faulty are not released onto the Ghanaian market.

Trade and Industry Minister, Ms Hannah Tetteh, told Parliament las FRiday that Toyota Ghana Limited had indicated that importation of Toyota Camry cars was not done on a large basis, but mostly by residents who had stayed in the US and decided to bring their cars home.

According to her, so far, Toyota Ghana Limited had been contacted by two individuals who purchased their cars from the USA and complained about a recall problem.

The minister was responding to a question posed by the MP for Tano South, Mr Andrew Adjei-Yeboah, on what plans the ministry was putting in place to check the importation of Toyota Camry cars from the US, following the recall of about four million of such cars because of operational problems.

“Another major importer of Toyota vehicles into the country is Sterling Automobile. The company has indicated that its main source of imports is the Middle East and that such vehicles are built to suit the hot weather condition of the Middle East.

“The only Toyota brand the company imports from the US is Toyota Avalon and to date only one Avalon has been imported into the country by the company,” she added.

Responding to another question posed by Mr Theophilus Tetteh Chaie, MP for Ablekuma Central, on tax incentives for spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai, the minister stated that tax incentives were aimed at attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and also for exports to accelerate the pace of the country’s development.

“Generally, incentives are not provided for imports. The spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai and other areas are mostly importers of spare parts, especially used ones,” she stated.

She added that under the ministry’s Trade Sector Support Programme (TSSP), there was a programme called the Technology Innovation Centre for Capital Goods, which was aimed at establishing an integrated foundry, metal working, machine tool and training centre for the manufacture of high precision capital goods and machine components.

The minister said the centre would produce precision parts and components of machinery/equipment and assemble the same for sub-sectors such as food processing and automobile spare parts.

She said SMEs would have the opportunity to undergo training and rent the facilities to produce spare parts which the existing facilities could not produce.