Both nations have generally been friendly since Ghana's independence, except for a period of strained relations during the later years of the Nkrumah regime.

Jerry Rawlings supported Libya's position that two Libyans accused of bombing a Pan American Airlines flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 should be tried in a neutral country rather than in Britain or the United States.

In July 1985, a distant relative of Rawlings, Michael Soussoudis, was arrested in the United States and charged with espionage.

In March 1986, a Panamanian-registered ship carrying arms and a number of mercenaries and United States veterans of the Vietnam War was seized off the coast of Brazil.

The PNDC charged that the arms and soldiers were destined for Ghana and that they had been financed by a Ghanaian dissident with links to the CIA.

His Global 2000 agricultural program, which is quite popular with Ghanaian farmers, is helping promote good relations with the United States.

Close relations are maintained between educational and scientific institutions, and cultural links between Ghanaians and African Americans are strong.

The facility is a direct result of Ghana's partnership with the United States on a Fuel Hub Initiative.

The Office of the President of Ghana worked closely with the U.S. Embassy in Accra to establish an American Chamber of Commerce to continue to develop closer economic ties in the private sector.

Major U.S. companies operating in the country include ACS, CMS Energy, Coca-Cola, S.C. Johnson, Ralston Purina, StarKist, A.H. Robins, Sterling, Pfizer, IBM, 3M, Motorola, Stewart & Stevenson, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and National Cash Register (NCR).

Several U.S. firms recently made or are considering investments in Ghana, primarily in gold mining, wood products, and petroleum.

In late 1997, Nuevo Petroleum concluded an oil exploration agreement accounting for the last of Ghana's offshore mineral rights zones.