The European Union has committed €4 million to support the creation of the African Union Trade Observatory, set up on Saturday 9 February. The result of a collaboration between the European Commission, the African Union Commission and the International Trade Centre (ITC), this observatory will facilitate the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area, supported by the EU since 2015 (see EUROPE 11987).
The observatory will collect data and analyse trade across borders in Africa, addressing the current lack of up-to-date and reliable data and statistics, to enable policy makers and interested stakeholders to identify promising market opportunities.
"It will provide the African Union, the African countries and the private sector with data and statistics that are essential for the sound monitoring of continental trade and evidence-based policy making”, said European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica.
This EU support is provided under the new ‘Africa-Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs', which aims to deepen economic and trade relations between Africa and Europe, and in the long term, to establish a continent-to-continent free trade area (see EUROPE 12162, 12096). The African Continental Free Trade Area - one of the key priorities of Africa’s Agenda 2063 - aims to boost Intra-Africa trade from an existing level of about 13% to 25% or more over the next decade. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)