18/10/2023
The European TE-TEF project to support African economic integration has visited the AfCFTA Secretariat in Ghana to draw up strategic guidelines
FIIAPP delegation visit to Ghana
A FIIAPP delegation has carried out a four-day visit to Accra, Ghana,headquarters of the Secretariat of the AfCFTA, the main partner and counterpart of the Team Europe Technical Assistance Facility programme to support AfCFTA and continental economic integration (EU-TAF), which FIIAPP implements together with GIZ and Expertise France.
The AfCFTA is the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in 2019 and aims at creating a single continental market for goods and services, contributing to the creation of new opportunities for African manufacturers and workers and boosting the industrialisation of the continent. The AfCFTA Secretariat is a specialised agency of the African Union in charge of coordinating the implementation of the agreement, and therefore the main partner and counterpart of the programme.
The team has met with representatives from different directorates and departments of the AfCFTA Secretariat, where they discussed the activities being carried out in the framework of the project and possible areas of future cooperation.
This visit has allowed to deepen and strengthen FIIAPP’s relations and understanding with some directorates, among which we can highlight that of Customs, given FIIAPP’s experience in this field. Likewise, the director of trade in goods, trade facilitation and competition has shown his interest in learning first-hand about the experience of European competition policies. These actions, together with others from other departments, will be reflected in the annual action plan 2024, in order to advance in the negotiations of the different trade protocols with the Member States of the African Union.
Sonsoles Mories, Director of Economic Development and Environment in the FIIAPP, said that cooperation through the EU-TAF is a great opportunity for the FIIAPP to carry out activities in the field of trade and economic integration, an area in which the institution has experience in other regions of the world.
In the context of the visit, the FIIAPP team also met with the Delegation of the European Union in Ghana and the Spanish Embassy.
About the project
The EU-TAF is a project implemented with a Team Europe approach, currently funded by the European Union, Germany, France and Sweden and implemented by GIZ, Expertise France and FIIAPP. The objective of the programme is to support the negotiations and implementation of the AfCFTA through technical assistance.
