Experts Meet to Set the Stage for Afcfta Phase II Negotiations

12 November 2018
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)

Addis Ababa — A meeting of experts was hosted by the African Union Commission (AUC), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from November 12 to 15, 2018, in Addis Ababa at the United Nations Conference Centre to discuss the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Phase II issues.

The AfCFTA Phase II issues are investment, competition policy, and intellectual property rights. These provide a critical complement to the Phase I topics of trade in goods and services, by helping to "ensure that the benefits from integration are not only deepened, but shared for a win-win AfCFTA", says Mr. David Luke, coordinator of the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) of ECA.

Following the experts group meeting, a validation workshop is to be held on November 16, 17 and 19 to review draft chapters of the Assessing Regional Integration in Africa (ARIA) IX, flagship report of ECA, on the theme, "Next steps for the African Continental Free Trade Area".

The ARIA report provides highly applied research to form the intellectual groundwork underpinning the phase II negotiations. To the greatest extent possible, the research aims to consider issues that are relevant not just to the AfCFTA now, but to future African negotiations with other trading partners and negotiations elsewhere in the world.

The publication of the ARIA report is scheduled for February 2019 to coincide with the launch of the AfCFTA Phase II negotiations.

Read the original article on UNECA.

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