TE-TAF Support to the AfCFTA and Continental Economic Integration

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Dem. Rep. Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) is the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which came into force in 2019. Its main objective is the creation of a single continental market for goods and services, contributing to the creation of new opportunities for African manufacturers and workers and thus boosting the industrialization of the continent.

TE-TAF stands for Team Europe Technical Assistance Facility to support the AfCFTA and Continental Economic Integration. The project provides targeted and on-demand support to strengthen and complement the capacities of the AfCFTA Secretariat, the African Union Commission (AUC), African Union Specialized Agencies, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), African Union Member States as well as continental and regional private sector organizations.

The main objectives of the project are:

i) To improve the capacity to prepare and conduct the remaining negotiations of the AfCFTA

ii) To strengthen the technical capacity of selected African countries and institutions to successfully implement the AfCFTA and manage the next steps towards a single market.

The program covers the following areas:

- Competition Policy

- Investment

- Intellectual Property Rights

- Rules of origin

- Customs and trade Facilitation

- Establishment of international standards SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary)

- Quality improvement of sanitary and phytosanitary products and integration of continental and global value chains.

- Protocols for trade-in service

This project is related to the strategic lines of the Spanish Administration's foreign policy, specifically with the III Africa Plan, the strategic framework that guides Spain's relations with the African continent. This approach coincides with the objectives of the African countries themselves, as expressed in the African Union's Agenda 2063, and with those of the European Union.

The project is funded by the EU, Germany, France and Sweden and implemented by GIZ, Expertise France and FIIAPP.