During its accession to the WTO, Comoros made ambitious commitments to implement the TFA to reap the benefits for economic development. The challenge lying ahead is to consolidate these reforms and fill remaining capacity gaps to support TFA implementation.

Upon request of the Comoros Permanent Mission to the WTO and in collaboration with the Accession Division and the Enhanced Integrated Framework, the TFAF supported a two-week, in-country Trade Facilitation Agreement diagnostic mission of the Comoran Geneva delegate that was supported on the ground by the national implementation unit of the EIF in Comoros.

The delegate engaged with relevant public and private stakeholders to collect information on the current state of implementation of the TFA. Two domestic workshops were organised, one attended by the Minister of Economy to consolidate the results and agree on the way forward, in terms of TFA notification and the technical assistance needed to implement the articles designated as Category C. The TFAF participated in the meetings to share experiences of other Members' categorisation and procedures to access technical assistance. The input was highly appreciated by domestic stakeholders.

Comoros has made progress in terms of updating its customs legislation in line with the TFA. Assistance is needed to support the training of officials on international best practices, which can also be shared, peer-to-peer by other WTO Members. Additional assistance is required in terms of outreach and sensitisation of the public and private sector to make them aware of the TFA and new simplified procedures. Comoros has a customs single window, but is seeking support to include other border agencies.   

The government of Comoros submitted the notification which was circulated to Members in the CTF on 4 March 2025. As a next step, the TFAF is now working with the Government to prepare a technical assistance strategy and identify partners to provide the needed assistance and capacity building.

Through the TFAF diagnostic mission, the WTO Secretariat demonstrated its continued support to the Comoros in the post-accession phase. It supports them to stay on track to deliver the development impact and domestic reform impetus from their accession to the WTO. The timely submission on 13 February 2025 of the notification on the implementation of the TFA to the Committee on Trade Facilitation is only a first step.

The next push is to mobilise assistance and capacity building for the implementation.