The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), conformed by 54 of the 55 African countries, is the first step to achieving the objective of a continental single market. With a journey that started in March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda, when the AfCFTA Agreement was opened to the signature, significant milestones have been registered that include 47 ratifications of the Agreement to date, and recent endorsement of the Competition Policy, Investment, and Intellectual Property Rights Protocols, by the 36th AU Ho/SG Summit on the 19th of February, 2023. This landmark agreement offers significant promise for the continent's transformation and will open up new economies of scale and create stronger foundations for economic diversification.

The AfCFTA is expected to boost intra-African trade, promote structural transformation, and generate significant employment opportunities in Africa, especially for women and young people. Despite the high political momentum and the strong economic rationale, realizing the AfCFTA will require strengthening institutional capacities to complete negotiations and to implement and honour the agreements, with the active involvement of the private sector and effective cooperation between stakeholders at the continental, regional, and national level.

Description of the TE TAF

The Team Europe Technical Assistance Facility to support the AfCFTA and Continental Economic Integration (TE TAF) seeks to contribute to the African economic Integration agenda through mainly the realisation of the AfCFTA. It has two specific objectives: (1). Secretariat – with focus on strengthening the institutional capacity to coordinate negotiations, as well as provide oversight on the implemenation of the Agreement, and (2). to be an efficient, reactive and flexible mechanism to answer to the needs of the African Union (AfCFTA Secretariat, AUC and some AU Specialized agencies), RECs, AU Member States and other potential continental partners and regional private sector organisations, working on fostering the AfCFTA and economic continental integration.

Funded by the EU, Agence Française de Development, the German Ministry of Development Cooperation (BMZ) and Sweden, the Team Europe Technical Assistance Facility will be implemented by GIZ, Expertise France, and FIAPP under the guidance of the AfCFTA Secretariat. The TE – TAF is implemented through the Project Management Unit (PMU), based at the AfCFTA Secretariat, in Accra, Ghana, whose mandate is to mobilize technical assistance to deliver interventions that foster to enhance implemenation of the agreement. Each implementing partner agency (Expertise France, GIZ and FIIAPP) is represented in the PMU.

Justification

As of February 2023, 46 member-States have ratified the Agreement. Significant progress has been registered on the negotiations across Phase I (Trade in Goods and Services and dispute settlement) and the recent finalisation of Phase II (Competition Policy, Investment and Intellectual Property Rights protocols). The negotiations on the Protocols on Women and Youth in Trade, and the Digital Trade, are envisaged to come on-stream early in 2023, with plans to conclude them during the course of the year.

This landmark agreement offers significant promise for the continent’s transformation, and   will open up new economies of scale and create stronger foundations for economic diustificationversification. The AfCFTA is expected to boost intra-African trade, to promote structural transformation and to generate significant employment opportunities in Africa, especially for women and young people. Despite the high political momentum and the strong economic rationale, realising the AfCFTA will require strengthening institutional capacities to complete negotiations and to implement the Agreement, with the active involvement of the private sector and effective cooperation between stakeholders at continental, regional and national level.

Noting the outstanding topics of AfCFTA Phase I on Trade in Goods and Services, other strategic areas of the agreement related to investment, competition policy, intellectual property rights, e-commerce (Phases II & III), will remain on the priority list of the Secretariat as implementation gains momentum.  That aside, support for stakeholder’s involvement to engender inclusivity, and some measure of broad ownership of the fruits of economic integration will also be vital, coupled with the development, and implementation of national AfCFTA strategies, capacity building and investment in national institutional arrangements.  With these positive developments, it is envisaged that the focus will now be on implementation  of the Agreement, and the commencement of meaningful trade among state parties.

Among the work to support the commencement of meaningful trade will include; Market Access offer for goods finalization, and commencement of negotiations for Categories B and C goods; expansion of the scope of the Guided Trade Initiative to cover the services sector;   and supporting member states in implementation of Protocol on Competition Policy. It is against this context, and based on priorities identified by the AfCFTA Secretariat, that Expertise France, through the TAF Project Management Unit of the AfCFTA Secretariat proposes to provide technical assistance to Directorate of Trade in Goods and Competition.

A Trade in Goods Expert is being recruited to provide technical support to the Directorate to enhance its effective management of the AfCFTA agenda with specific focus on delivering targeted technical inputs in the areas of Market Access, Trade Remedies and Competition.

The candidate will be integrated into the Directorate’s work flow, delivering targeted technical inputs on a need driven basis, informed by an agreed Work Plan developed in close collaboration with the Directorate.