Company Profile

Nathan, a Cadmus Company is a leading provider of analytic and economic consultancy services worldwide. In the past decade, we have implemented more than 120 projects in more than 50 countries leveraging our global presence in Washington DC, London, and India. From improved transparency and deeper stakeholder engagement to more effective policies and more resilient businesses, we deliver results that impact economic growth, human development, and poverty reduction. We are passionate about applying our deep analytical expertise and advanced proprietary tools to generate economic solutions tailored to our clients’ unique challenges.  Nathan focuses on a range of economic development subject matter areas including Trade & Logistics; Economic Policy & Governance; Private Sector Development; Women’s Economic Empowerment; and Financial Solutions. 

Job Description

Aligning and Harmonizing Existing National and International Trade Policies, Laws, and Regulations with the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement within the Jurisdictional Scope of The Republic of Ghana

Introduction

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is one of the most important decisions of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of States and Governments towards regional integration. It seeks to create a tariff-free and borderless continent that can speed up the rate of industrialization and boost intra-African trade.

As the host country of the AfCFTA Secretariat, and with Ghana’s position as a leading advocate for the single continental market, the Government is committed to enhancing the capacity and competitiveness of the Ghanaian private sector to be able to take full advantage of the benefits of the AfCFTA, boost production, and expand exports within the continental market. As part of efforts to deliver on this vision a National Policy Framework and Action Plan for Boosting Ghana’s Trade with Africa (NPFAP) has been launched to foster coordinated and concerted efforts by relevant institutions to ensure local businesses and exporters are positioned to take advantage of the AfCFTA Agreement.

Component One of the NPFAP (on AfCFTA Trade Policy) focuses on fast tracking trade development in Ghana through the adaption and implementation of national trade policies coherent with and geared towards boosting trade with Africa. This would require that the provisions of the AfCFTA rules and regulations would be mainstreamed into the laws of the country. In this regard, and in line with its mandate as the focal point for coordinating government’s strategic response to the AfCFTA, the National AfCFTA Coordination Office (NCO) intends to work with public and private stakeholder groups to review existing trade policies, laws, and regulations, and recommend further action(s) to make them AfCFTA compliant.

With the support of the USAID-funded Feed the Future Ghana Trade and Investment (GTI) Activity, the NCO is seeking experts with the requisite experience and knowledge to undertake a review of existing laws and make appropriate recommendations for alignment and harmonization.

This activity is outlined in GTI’s Year 3 Work Plan to meet the objectives of GTI’s Result B3: Ghana’s trade and investment policies aligned with AfCFTA regulations, Task B.3.1 Support Ghana’s BIAT Program of Action.

Context and Background

Ghana has been an open market economy since it broke away from the post-independence era state-controlled economy of the late 1950s and undertook economic reforms and structural adjustments programmes in the 1980s. Given its relatively small market size, seeking and negotiating access to other markets has been an integral part of its trade policy since then. Over the years Ghana has sought to strengthen trade relations with various countries through various agreements. On the multilateral front, Ghana joined the global trading environment, the World Trade Organization (WTO), in 1995 to ensure that the country would participate fully in negotiations in multilateral trading fora and secure the country’s national interests, with the view that the open trading rules would provide the best opportunities for its development. Many developed countries have granted Ghana and other developing countries preferential market access under schemes such as the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA, 2000). Ghana also has benefited from non-reciprocal market access to the European Union (EU) since 1975 and, majority of Ghana’s exports enter the EU duty and quota free. Ghana negotiated a new WTO compliant agreement with the EU taking into consideration Ghana’s level of economic development within the context of the Cotonou Agreement. In addition, Ghana was a founding member of the Economic Community of the West African States (ECOWAS) and is an active participant of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS).

The AfCFTA Agreement entered into force on the 30^th of May 2019. More than just a process to eliminate tariffs, the AfCFTA is far reaching and perhaps the most significant political commitment by leaders in post-colonial Africa. “It is a litmus test of the commitment of African countries to economic integration”, seen as a major force for integration and transformation, with the goal of creating a tariff-free continent by eliminating barriers to trade and investment, and creating a single market that can grow local businesses, speed up the rate of industrialization, and boost intra-African trade to create jobs and prosperity for its people.

AfCFTA does not prevent State Parties from concluding or maintaining preferential trade arrangements with Third Parties, provided that such trade arrangements do not impede or frustrate the objectives of the Agreement. Indeed, the Agreement does acknowledge the pre-existence of Free Trade Areas (FTAs) of the continent’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs), such as the ETLS, as building blocks and preserves these. Any advantage, concession or privilege granted to a Third Party under any such arrangement must also be extended to other State Parties. However, where incompatibilities or inconsistencies exist between the AfCFTA and other regional trading arrangements, the AfCFTA is to prevail.  On the other hand, in RECs that have achieved higher levels of regional integration among themselves than under the AfCFTA would prevail over AfCFTA.

Thus, to effectively operationalize the AfCFTA in the context of Component One of the NPFAP, pre-existing trade agreements, laws and policies must be aligned to the AfCFTA in order to safeguard trade from avoidable overlaps and contradictions. All existing national regulatory frameworks that may affect, or be affected by AfCFTA have to be reviewed, refreshed, and aligned to pave way for effectively trading within the continent. This should involve engagement with the Parliament as well as relevant government agencies. Where necessary new legislation and policy frameworks should be formulated.

In addition to legislation at the national level, the Agreement needs to be codified within appropriate local bylaws, or new ones need to be promulgated to create the enabling conditions for entrepreneurs, and citizens in general. These are the enabling execution instruments that will trigger and drive concrete actions for meaningful participation and leveraging of opportunities of AfCFTA and achieving measurable impacts at the local levels without hinderance from contradictions.

Required Skills or Experience

Due to the wide array of laws that may have to be reviewed, it is strongly recommended that the assignment should be undertaken by a team of consultants with competencies in trade policy/law, trade in goods, and trade in services.

Minimum requirements to be met by each team member include:

1. Trade Policy Team Lead: The lead consultant shall have a minimum of a Master’s degree in international trade and policy, economics and/or trade law. He/she must have at least 15 years post-graduate professional experience in the operational aspects of trade policy and/or trade law in an African context. He/she must be conversant with Africa’s development issues, intra-African relations, and regional integration.
2. Trade Policy Expert: A minimum of a Master’s degree in international trade and policy, economics and/or trade law with at least 10 years post-graduate professional experience in international trade practice.
3. Program Support Specialist: A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in international trade and policy, economics, development management, science or engineering, project management or a related field. Must have at least 5 years’ experience coordinating projects, and demonstrate proficiency in stakeholder engagements and facilitation. He/She must have experience working with key public sector and private sector agencies in the trade landscape and stakeholders in Ghana, and should be familiar with Ghana’s trade agreements.

Specific roles of each team member include:

Offer from Consultant

GTI invites interested persons to submit a proposal for carrying out this assignment. The offer should include consultants’ academic as well as professional qualifications, and a profile of related work done.

Note: Applicants are to apply for only one position.