It involves the African Trade Policy Centre of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the African Union Commission (AUC).

This particular edition will prepare analytical work to inform the Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Phase II negotiations, a release copied to the Ghana News Agency said. The ARIA 9 report will address the three topics of the AfCFTA Phase II negotiations: including competition policy, investment; intellectual property rights; and additionally look at the case for digital trade and e-commerce.

It is expected that there will be presentations of case studies including the experiences of the Regional Economic Communities across each of these themes which will build a discussion on possible policies and their characteristics in each of the four subjects, as well as their developmental potential.

It said concluding each theme will be a comparative analysis of the case studies from which recommendations will be drawn for the African continental context.The output from the consultative meetings aspires to form the intellectual groundwork underpinning the phase II negotiations, but also inform future African negotiations with other trading partners and negotiations elsewhere in the world.

The meeting, which ran from 16 to 27th July, has brought together experts from the AUC, ECA, UNCTAD, AfDB, Overseas Development Institute, International Arbitration Africa, Centre for Trade Policy and Law, Cape Town University, CUTS, ARIPO, OAPI, ECOWAS, EAC, COMESA Competition Commission, SADC, among others.

Stakeholders are expectant of positive outcomes.