Project Background:

Comoros is in the process of joining the WTO. As part of its accession process it needs to demonstrate that it has capacities to implement WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS). The World Bank is supporting Comoros in increasing its capacities in these two areas. On behalf of the World Bank, we conducted an assessment of Comoros’ SPS and TFA capacities for the importation and exportation of food.

Our Work:

We initially reviewed documents of projects in the areas of food safety and trade that had been conducted in the preceding years. The documents helped to preliminarily identify strengths and challenges and also provided an overview of the stakeholder environment. The key activity of the project was a 10-day mission to Comoros, during which we conducted interviews with several stakeholders from the public and private sector, including for example the authority responsible for food safety border inspections, the Ministry of Economy, sector and consumer associations and individual traders. These interviews helped us to assess the current status of the regulatory framework and its implementation, the level of transparency concerning applicable SPS rules and measures and existing mechanisms for coordination, communication and dialogue. Following a result validation workshop, we provided our final report to the Ministry of Economy. The report will help to determine areas that will require further support and development.