Principal Officer, Market Access - Committed To Good

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Overview of position

• The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat is the sole organization on the continent, legally established & mandated to handle the rules of trade between African countries. At the core is the implementation of the agreement establishing the AfCFTA (thereafter “AfCFTA agreement”), negotiated, signed & ratified by the state parties. The goal is to ensure that trade is conducted smoothly, predictably & as freely as possible across the continent. The AfCFTA Secretariat, which is headquartered in Accra – Ghana at the Africa Trade House, was established in February 2020 following the election of its first Secretary-General.
• The AfCFTA agreement was signed at an extraordinary session of the assembly of the African Union (AU) in Kigali, Rwanda on 21 March 2018. The agreement sets out a continental system of trade rules, acts as a platform for negotiating trade protocols, facilitates the settlement of disputes between state parties & monitors the implementation of the AfCFTA agreement. Furthermore, the AfCFTA agreement is a framework agreement, with comprehensive coverage of trade in goods, trade in services, investment, competition policy, intellectual property rights, women, youth in trade & digital trade as well as rules & procedures for the settlement of disputes .
• The effective implementation of the AfCFTA was set in motion in January 2021 with the launch of the commencement of trading. However meaningful trade has not commenced on account of incomplete negotiations of the tariff offers, even though the deadline for this was June 30th, 2021. So far only 44 member states (including members of customs unions) have submitted tariff offers. Only a few of the offers meet the adopted modalities for trade in goods. Similarly, only 35 members states have submitted schedules of commitment to services liberalization.

• They fall short of the modalities. The delay is causing anxiety to the business operators. It is critical that the tariff liberalization offers & the schedules of commitment for services liberalization be concluded in accordance with the adopted modalities.
• It is against this background that the AfCFTA Secretariat seeks to engage the services of the Principal Officer – Market Access to develop strategies to support the member states & the customs unions in making meaningful offers on the basis of the adopted modalities for trade in goods & trade in services.

Role objectives

The Consultant Market Access is to support the member states & customs unions in making meaningful offers on the basis of adopted modalities for trade in goods & trade in services. The Consultant will be supervised by the Chief Technical Advisor – Negotiations under the Office of the SecretaryGeneral on the following tasks, among others:

• Develop policy guidelines on tariff reduction schedule as per agreed modalities on trade in goods.
• Develop policy guidelines on scheduling commitments as per agreed modalities on trade in services.
• Facilitate negotiations as well as the implementation of phase I under the AfCFTA agreement.
• Undertake subject-specific research & analysis of areas of concern to member states as well as on emerging issues in implementation of the tariff reduction program.
• Prepare policy papers for the effective coordination of policy-related activities on market access at the AfCFTA Secretariat.
• Perform any other duties as may be required from time to time.