Gilberto ANTONIO, Senior Advisor to the Secretary-General, AfCFTA Secretariat
Mr. Gilberto DF António is the Senior Advisor to the Secretary-General of the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Previously, he worked at the Permanent Mission of Angola to the World Trade Organization (WTO), actively participating in multilateral trade negotiations. He was the focal point of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States at the WTO on regional integration issues.
António also worked as a consultant to the Trade Policy Training Centre in Africa (TRAPCA) on technical assistance projects to African countries in the field of trade in services. He was also an Assistant Professor of Statistics at the Geneva Business School. He has spoken at numerous workshops on trade policy and negotiations, as well as on trade facilitation organized by the WTO and UNCTAD.
He studied Political Science and Economics, at the University of Geneva, and Statistics at the University of Neuchâtel, both in Switzerland. He has also obtained several certificates in Trade, Investment and Diplomacy from international institutions, including the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), UNCTAD, WTO, and the African Development Bank.
His research domain is international trade and investment. He is the author of six books as well as articles/working papers on international trade and investment.
In the field of research and publication, he is coordinating a project on policies and instruments for diversifying the economy. As part of this project, two books were published in 2021 (in Portuguese), namely “Commercial Diplomacy” (p.180) and “Business Internationalisation: promotion policies and tools” (p.170)