Realising divergences between national Customs laws and procedures that can hamper intra-COMESA trade and other intra-COMESA exchanges, the COMESA Member States considered simplification and harmonisation of Customs laws and procedures in order to effectively contribute to improvement of intra-COMESA trade and other intra-COMESA exchanges and were convinced that implementation of the provisions of Article 5 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, Article 70 of the COMESA Treaty and Regulation 151 of the COMESA Common Market Customs Management Regulations would lead progressively to a high degree of simplification and harmonisation of Customs procedures which is the object of Chapter Nine of the COMESA Treaty.