Proceedings of the 13 th Meeting of the
COMCEC Agriculture Working Group
16
Answer: Prof. SAYAN stated that they completely agree with this. He added that indeed, all of the
policy actions to be taken by the OIC member countries need to be in line with the existing legal
framework of the WTO.
Question: Could there be a benchmark or best-practice trade bloc or economic union that may
serve as an example for the OIC in terms of agricultural trade policy making?
Answer: Prof. SAYAN highlighted that the research presented in this meeting focused on major
trading blocs and economic unions such as the EU-28, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, and ASEAN. These blocs
and unions have a regional basis such that the members have close geographical proximity. Besides,
as the findings of the research made clear, the EU-28 and NAFTA generally have much lower
average tariffs than MERCOSUR and ASEAN. The OIC member countries are dispersed over 4
continents and exhibit significantly higher average geographical distance. Besides, the tariff
averages in the OIC are closer to MERCOSUR and ASEAN averages. It is not immediately clear which
of these blocs and unions is the closest benchmark to the OIC. But it should also be noted that Brazil
is a typical best-practice case for the OIC countries in terms of (i) trade agreements with the OIC
countries and (ii) product spectrum covering the potential product divisions identified in the
research.
Remark: The two problems The Gambia has been facing in agricultural trade, i.e., the dependency
to groundnuts exports and the data availability/reliability issues, pose highly significant challenges
as the report identifies.
Answer: Prof. SAYAN mentioned that the EU has recently increased aflatoxin limits in groundnuts
significantly affected The Gambia’s ability to export in the European markets. While this diverted
the country’s groundnuts exports to China in recent years, it is of utmost importance for The
Gambia to build the relevant testing infrastructure.