African Expert Spotlight: Meet African Experts Show Guest Beatrice Chaytor

Beatrice Chaytor is an international trade lawyer who specializes in providing advice and support to African governments in their engagement with regional and international trade policy processes. She is currently a senior expert – Trade in Services in the Department of Trade and Industry at the  African Union Commission where she works on negotiations for the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

From 2004  to 2008, Chaytor was a Senior Trade Policy Advisor in the Ministry of Trade and  Industry in Sierra Leone, on assignment by the Commonwealth Secretariat.  Prior to her assignment in Sierra Leone, Chaytor worked for nine years as a Senior Lawyer, and then  Programme Director, at the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development  (FIELD) in London, building capacity among developing country negotiators at the World Trade  Organisation. 

From 2008 to 2010, she worked with the International Lawyers and  Economists Against Poverty (ILEAP) in providing capacity-building support to a number of African regions in their negotiations with the European Union on trade in services under the EPAs and defining solutions and strategies for African countries’ needs on Aid for Trade 

Chaytor runs her own law firm Chariot Eight in Freetown, Sierra Leone, providing legal services to local, regional and international clients on a range of corporate law matters including trade, investment, natural resources, and the environment. She has undertaken assignments for DFID, the European Union Commission, and the UN FAO. 

About African Experts features Sierra Leonean Journalist Vickie Remoe in conversation with African researchers, practitioners, and entrepreneurs.