At the third meeting of the Working Party on the Accession of the Comoros held on 12 October, members commended the sustained and constructive engagement of the national authorities in this process as the Indian Ocean state approaches the final stages prior to WTO membership. Members reiterated their full support to Comoros’ efforts to become a member of the organization and said they would keep working with the country with a view to conclude negotiations as soon as possible.

“I am pleased to note that the Working Party on the Accession of the Union of the Comoros is meeting for the third time since its first meeting only 10 months ago in December 2016. This is an impressive achievement and proof that this accession process has become a serious prospect and is reaching an advanced stage. We have made considerable progress and I highly commend Comoros for the sustained engagement, both in terms of political commitment, and substantive work at the technical level. Of course, credit should also go to Members who have dedicated resources and also provided financial and technical assistance to Comoros,” said the chair of the Working Party, Ambassador Luis Enrique Chávez Basagoitia of Peru.

The Comorian delegation was headed by Ambassador Sultan Chouzour on behalf of the Vice-president of Comoros, Mr. Djaffar Ahmed Said Hassani, who followed the meeting from Moroni via videoconference. Ambassador Chouzour said: “We have spared no effort to achieve our accession on the occasion of the 11th WTO Ministerial Meeting in December. But if this should not be the case, as we are also aware of the problems we still have to solve, our commitment will remain intact to overcome them in the first half of 2018 as much as possible. I base my measured optimism on the results obtained, thanks to the immense work accomplished in recent months.”

Ambassador Chouzour added that “the holding of this third meeting of the working group before the end of the year is already a huge victory, which embodies the great deal of work accomplished over the last few months.”

WTO members welcomed the substantive work done so far, while noting that some issues would require further work to bring the country’s foreign trade regime and its legislative framework into full conformity with WTO rules and requirements.

The Comoros delegation reported on the signing of three bilateral market access agreements - two in July with Brazil and Japan and the third this week with Oman - and on several bilateral meetings where further progress with other members was registered.

At a stage of the accession process where work is rapidly reaching technical maturity, members were invited to indicate clearly what technical work Comoros is intended to undertake so that the next round of documents presented to the Working Party can become a solid reference for the Accession Package which will eventually emerge. “These indications from members will be also critical in setting out the roadmap of our future work,” the chair said.

Next steps

The Working Party was invited by the chair to turn its attention to the elaboration of commitment language for the Working Party report, the final document passed on to the General Council for approval, covering the applicant country’s commitments on applying WTO rules. Members were invited to provide questions and comments in writing by 9 November.

Comoros was invited to provide a revised Legislative Action Plan and submit newly enacted trade related legislation, as it becomes available, and to submit legislation in draft form for review and comments, where appropriate. Comoros was reminded of the critical importance of completing the enactment of all WTO-related legislation before the final meeting of the Working Party.

The next Working Party meeting will take place tentatively at the beginning of 2018 “so that momentum which has been built throughout this year can be sustained as we hopefully enter the final phase of our collective undertaking,” Ambassador Chávez Basagoitia added.

Background

Comoros is a least-developed country (LDC) in the Indian Ocean, with a population of approximately 780,000. The Government of the Union of the Comoros applied for accession to the WTO in February 2007, and the working party was established in October 2007. In October 2013, the country submitted its Memorandum on the Foreign Trade Regime. The first meeting of the working party on the accession of the Union of the Comoros was held on 2 December 2016.