ACCRA, Nov 24, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Ghana has received official confirmation from the United States that Washington has fully removed the 15 percent tariff imposed on the West African nation's cocoa and agricultural exports, its foreign minister announced Monday.

The move comes at a sensitive moment in Ghana-US relations.

Accra recently accepted dozens of deportees from the United States -- exclusively West Africans -- on what the government described as humanitarian grounds, despite domestic criticism over the arrangement.

Washington also reversed its visa restrictions on Ghanaian travellers after months of dialogue.

"The United States administration has officially informed the Government of Ghana that President Trump's 15% imposition of tariffs on Cocoa and certain qualifying agricultural products from Ghana have been rescinded," Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa posted on X.

He added that American diplomats had confirmed to him that "the 15% tariff reversal came into effect on November 13, 2025 following President Trump's new Executive Order."

The tariff rollback reverses a Trump-era policy that had sharply raised the cost of Ghanaian produce entering the US market.

Ghana exports an average of 78,000 metric tons of cocoa beans to the United States annually.

At the current spot price of $5,300 per metric ton, the minister added, the country "stands to raise additional revenue of US$60 million... each year resulting from Trump's tariff rescission".

The exemptions covered other Ghanaian agricultural products including cashew nuts, avocados, bananas, mangoes, plantain, pineapples, coconuts, ginger and peppers, he said.

"Ghana welcomes this positive development from the US which is the world's leading importer of chocolate and cocoa products. Ghana and the USA will continue to forge closer and mutually beneficial relations," he added.

Analysts say the tariff removal is a significant diplomatic win following years of tension over deportations and documentation compliance.

"It's a win-win situation for both countries," Accra-based economist Daniel Amateye Anim-Prempeh of the Policy Initiative for Economic Development (PIED) told AFP.

"The cocoa sector, the backbone of Ghana's agricultural economy, stands to gain the most from improved access to the US market."

Ghana, the world's second-largest cocoa producer, relies heavily on export revenues to stabilise its currency and finance public spending.