RESTRICTED  
  
JOB/ACC/COM/8  
29 March  2018 
(18-1974) Page: 1/2 
Working Party on the Accession  
of the Union of the Comoros  Original:  French  
 
  
ACCESSION OF THE UNION OF THE COMOROS  
STATEMENT BY H.E.  MR SULTAN CHOUZOUR, AMBASSADOR, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE, 
MISSION OF THE UNION OF THE COMOROS  
Fourth Meeting of the Working Party  on the Accession of the Union of the Comoros  
28 March  2018 
1.  It is o n behalf of H.E. Mr Djaffar Ahmed Said Hassani, Vice-President for Economy and Trade, 
among other matters, of the Union of the Comoros , in his capacity as head of the negotiations, 
that I take the floor her e and thank you for your presence , always the source of a fruitful and 
constructive dialogue . 
2.  My remarks will primarily address the progress made by the Comor ian delegation  since our last 
meeting, held in October in these same WTO premises . 
3.  But first , I would like to say that this Fourth Meeting of the Working Party is, for us, a pivotal 
one. We all worked hard over the course of this past  year with a view to the Comoros acceding t o 
the WTO in December  2017, at the Eleventh WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires . 
4.  We were all  buoyed by th e promising momentum, and it  galvanized everyone  to action . But 
unfortunately, the situation  did not unfold  as hoped . And it became clear to us, even before the 
Ministerial Conference  was held , that we wo uld have to re assess  our goals. 
5.  We adapted to and prepared for  this possibility , and at the Third Meeting of the Working Party, 
the Comorian delegation , in its plenary  statement , acknowledged the new state of affairs while 
also reaffirming the determination of the Comoros to concentrate and continue its efforts to 
achieve accession in 2018 . 
6.  I would like to solemnly reiterate this desire and commitment on behalf of the Vice -President of 
the Union of the Comoros . 
7.  Our determination is today even st ronger , as we successfully concluded our negotiations with 
Canada yesterday  for bilateral agreement s with that great country . 
8.  I would like to now present a summary of the work done since the last meeting of the Working 
Party. 
9.  As on the previous occasions , all questions asked by delegations were answered fully and 
satisfactorily, as expected , including those on  sectoral matters  such as offers , ODCs and TRIPS.  
10.  Of course, the answer s given can inspire other questions or lead to requests for additional 
inform ation. In these cases, the members of our delegation will make every effort to provide a 
response  quickly – right here, if we can ; otherwise, as soon as possible . JOB/ACC/COM/8  
- 2 - 
  11.  With respect to the legislative agenda , we would like to bring to the Members ' attention the 
fact that, to date, four laws have been passed, namely : 
1. the law on s anitary and phytosanitary c onditions for imports and e xports ; 
2. the law on plant protection ; 
3. the law to "nationalize"  the Bangui Agreement ; 
4. the law establishing the Competition Commission . 
All implementing decrees for these laws have been enacted . 
12.  In addition , a bill on copyright, prepared with assistance from WIP O, is about to be submitted 
to Parliament . 
13.  We are well aware that we must now concentrate our efforts  on our legislative action pl an in 
the hope of achieving our objectives in a timely manner , and we are  aware of the difficulty of the 
task. 
14.  Until now, w e had been convinced that the technical issues were by far the most difficult to 
resolve . And they were . But now we see that the institutional aspects might be even more difficult . 
We make this comment in l ight of the obstacles we  had to overcome in order to achieve the 
aforementioned results . 
15.  But we feel a reasonable amount of optimism may be justified , as we have received renewed 
assurances of support from the highest levels of our Government, starting with the President of 
the Republic , H.E. Mr Azali Assoumani.  
16.  Having reached this advanced stage in the  negotiations, I would like to ask the other 
delegations to provide the Comorian  delegation with commitment texts that will enable us to  move 
ahead and  bring our laws and regulations into conformity with WTO provisions and rules . This will 
make a significant contribution and  will help us to identify , even more quickly,  the priority ac tions 
to be carried out. Thank you in advance to th ose delegations that respond to this request . 
17.  We also thank the Sultanate of Oman and its Permanent Mission in Geneva for the ir generous 
and fraternal support, which has allowed the Comoros to full y and honourably  participate in all the 
Working Party  meetings  in Geneva . 
18.  Our thanks also go to the Accessions Division for its particularly effective  and exemplary 
assistance, as well as to the Chair man of the Working Party, H.E. Ambassador Chávez Basagoi tia, 
who brings to us his wide experience as a seasoned diplomat and is very attentive to the problems 
we discuss with  him. 
19.  I do not want to overlook  all the other institutional and governmental partners who have 
assisted us from the beginning and who se continued support  we request . 
20.  Before concluding and as a  sidebar to my statement, I would like to share with you that all the 
Comor ian delegates expected at this meeting in Geneva have indeed arrived and are here with us ; 
the problems  mention ed from time t o time  regarding  the issuance of visas by the French embassy 
in Moroni were purely administrative and were resolved pursuant to the current procedures on the 
matter . 
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