According to our source, the main objectives of the protocol include enhancing and facilitating digital trade among African countries by removing barriers to digital trade between member states, establishing coordinated, predictable, and transparent rules, as well as common principles and standards for digital trade. It aims to create a transparent, predictable, secure, and trustworthy digital trade ecosystem for businesses and consumers, strengthen cooperation among member states on digital trade issues, promote common and open standards to enable interoperability of frameworks and systems to facilitate cross-border digital trade, encourage the trusted, secure, ethical, and responsible adoption and regulation of emerging and advanced technologies to support and enhance digital trade, boost digital skills development, digital innovation, entrepreneurship, digital manufacturing, and digital infrastructure development to facilitate the digital transformation of member states, and provide a common legal framework for digital trade among member states.

The Ministry of Trade and Export Development, in cooperation with the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), launched a national workshop to develop competencies on the Digital Trade Protocol of the AfCFTA and its annexes, running until October 3, 2025.

About 50 officials from various national bodies concerned with digital trade in Tunisia are participating in this workshop.

The workshop aims to deepen understanding of the protocol’s contents and its annexes, and to study related legal and regulatory frameworks for updating and aligning them with the protocol, as it is an integral part of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement, according to Khabbab Al-Hadhri, Director of E-commerce and Intangible Economy Development at the Ministry of Trade and Export Development, speaking to “Assabah News”.

The Digital Trade Protocol was adopted in February 2024 and covers several areas including access to the African market, facilitation of digital trade, data governance, business and consumer trust, digital trade inclusion, and capacity building. Its eight annexes are to be adopted in February 2025, marking an important step towards completing the legal framework of the AfCFTA agreement in digital trade, during the 37th and 38th ordinary sessions of the African Union Heads of State and Government Conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The annexes cover details such as rules of origin for digital products, trusted digital identities to facilitate electronic transactions, cross-border digital payments and financial harmonization, cross-border data flows and their regulation, legitimate reasons for source code disclosure of software, internet safety and security, alongside enhanced data protection efforts and support for fintech and emerging technologies in the continent.

Several signatory countries of the Free Trade Agreement, including Tunisia, have ratified the protocol and its annexes for implementation, according to our source. Countries have 5 years to align their legal texts with the provisions of the protocol and its annexes.

According to our source, the protocol’s key goals include enhancing and facilitating digital trade among African countries by removing barriers between member states, establishing coordinated, predictable, and transparent rules, common principles and standards for digital trade, creating a transparent, predictable, secure, and trustworthy digital trade ecosystem for businesses and consumers, strengthening cooperation among member states on digital trade issues, promoting common and open standards to enable interoperability of frameworks and systems to facilitate cross-border digital trade, encouraging trusted, secure, ethical, and responsible adoption and regulation of emerging and advanced technologies to support and enhance digital trade, boosting digital skills development, digital innovation, entrepreneurship, digital manufacturing, and digital infrastructure development to facilitate the digital transformation of member states, and providing a common legal framework for digital trade among member states.