Competition Policy and Law in intra Africa Trade

Statement of need

A sound competition policy, along with a good competition law regime helps in fostering competition, economic efficiency, consumer welfare, investment and freedom of doing business.  This course is therefore designed to inculcate the necessary knowledge and skills among the participants to deal with the issues relating to anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominance, exclusion as well as exploitative practices, enforcement of competition law against anticompetitive agreements and addressing bottlenecks to completion enforcement in Sub-Saharan Africa. In light of the coming into effect of the AfCFTA Agreement and its various Protocols, the importance of competition policy and law cannot be overemphasized. At the national level, the importance of competition policy has increased, particularly in recognition of the need to ensure that SMEs thrive and continue to contribute in national economies.

Further, because regional agreements hold an important potential to overcome the main obstacles in the enforcement of competition laws, the course will also examine the national and regional competition regimes from the policy and legal perspective. It will review the rationale behind the setting up of competition policy institutions at national, regional and international levels. It will further consider cooperation in the sphere of competition law and policy, regional cooperation in combating anti-competitive practices as well as enforcement of competition policies and laws.  

Course objectives

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the theoretical foundations of competition policy and regulation;
• Critically examine policy issues in competition policy and regulation both at a national and regional level;
• Critically evaluate real-world cases in completion policy and regulation;
• Critically evaluate the different approaches to regulation and competition policy;
• Apply the principles of competition policy to the current practices of policy intervention to facilitate investment and fair competition; competition law areas include merger control, abuse of dominance issues, restrictive agreements within commercial contracts, public procurement and competition due diligence.
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the expected role of different stakeholders and groups to ensure better market competitiveness at the national and regional levels. 

Content

• Strategies for building an Export Business Plan and Market Research, information and marketing strategies and making the assessment of readiness to export
• Export and Resource Management
• Legal aspects of Intellectual property and protections of export brands and contractual aspects of export transactions
• How to create a conducive environment for export facilitation through an understanding of incoterms utility in export transactions
• An in-depth look into Intra-African Trade and The African Continental Free Trade Agreement and regulation of trade in goods under the AfCFTA regulation of Trade in Services under the AfCFTA
• Understanding rules of origin requirements and procedures
• Analysis of standards in bilateral/regional agreements
• E-commerce readiness assessment and strategy formulation

Target group

Officials from Trade and Trade Related Ministries and parastatals, officials from Regional Economic Communities, Negotiators, and Regional Integration Practitioners. Private sector player in transport and logistics

Duration
2 Weeks

Venues
a) Venue 1: Nairobi, Kenya
Date: 6 – 17 May 2024

b) Venue 2: Arusha
Date: 5 – 16 August 2024

Course Fees
$1,600