Costa Rica has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

It is reported that Costa Rica's Telecommunications Superintendency (SUTEL), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

Costa Rica is a signatory of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) of 1996 and its 2015 expansion (ITA II).

In accordance with the General Law on Public Procurement, national suppliers are granted preferential treatment in government procurement. Art. 23 of this law affords special preferences to local SMEs. In order to promote regional development, the administration shall award a score of up to 10% to SMEs from certain regions of the country that the administration aims to develop and which mainly employ people from that region. Should the administration deviate from this, it must provide a rationale in the form of a reasoned act signed by the responsible official. Further details regarding the participation of SMEs can be found in Arts. 72-79 of the Regulations to the General Law on Public Procurement.
Additionally, Art. 14 of the Special Regulation for the Promotion of SMEs in the Purchase of Goods and Services of the Administration stipulates that in an administrative contracting process where the bidders of goods or services have equal or comparable conditions in terms of quality, supply and price, preference to SMEs of national production is established as a tie-breaking mechanism for the award of the bid.

Art. 12 of Law No. 7017-A stipulates that in any government procurement operation, preference must be given to domestic products when the quality is equivalent, supplies are adequate, and the price is equal to or lower than that of the imported product. Further details regarding this article can be found in Regulation No. 32448.

It has been reported that there is a lack of transparency in public procurement. Furthermore, foreign companies are required to translate tender documents from Spanish into English and assist in preparing bid offers in Spanish. Additionally, there is a significant advantage in having a strong local partner or representative.

Costa Rica is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). However, the country has been an observer of the WTO GPA since 2015.

Congo has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Commerce.

Congo has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Signatures.

There is reportedly arbitrary, irregular or uneven application of customs regulations at the border. In addition, a lack of understanding of the proper application and enforcement of customs regulations by government inspectors can contribute to difficulties for trading partners and investors.

Certification of conformity must be approved by the Congolese Agency of Normalization and Quality (ACONOQ). ACONOQ is responsible for certifying the conformity of products, goods, services, management systems, and personnel competencies to standards. Furthermore, all imports into Congo must have a conformity certificate issued by ACONOQ. Although the homologation process does not require local labouratory testing or contact with local representatives, product samples must be submitted to the authority for inspection.

Art. 145 of the Law on Electronic Communication mandates the persons or suppliers of cryptology services to disclose the technical characteristics of the source code of the software to be used by the National Agency for Information Systems Security (ANSSI).

According to the Instruction No. 8/GR/2019 issued by the Governor of the Bank of Central African States to facilitate the interpretation and implementation of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) Regulation 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, there is a limit of 1 million XAF (approx. USD 1,700) per month and per person for the remote settlement of transactions, including online payments. According to Arts. 7-8, justification needs to be provided above this limit. The Instruction provides guidance on the provision of Art. 34 of the Regulation, which implements certain limits for using electronic payment instruments outside the CEMAC and applies to the six CEMAC member states, including Congo.