Proceedings of the 13th Meeting of
The COMCEC Trade Working Group
10
5. Policy Options for Public Availability of Customs Information in the OIC
Member Countries
The session was moderated by Mr. Rizwan BASHIR, Secretary of Federal Board of Revenue in
Pakistan. At the outset, Mr. BASHIR stated that “the Room Document for the Moderation
Session of the 13th Meeting of the Trade Working Group”, prepared by the COMCEC
Coordination Office in light of the findings of the analytical study prepared specifically for the
Meeting and the answers of the Member Countries to the policy questions which have already
been sent by the CCO.
At the beginning of the session, Mr. Selçuk KOÇ, Director from the COMCEC Coordination
Office, made a brief presentation on the responses of the Member Countries to the policy
questions on the public availability of customs information sent to the Trade Working Group
focal points by the CCO. Afterwards, Mr. Ercan SAKA, Consultant of the CCO, gave some
information regarding the draft policy advices included in the Room Document.
Based on intensive deliberations, the participants agreed on the following policy advices which
are also given in the attached room document to be submitted to the 35th Session of the
COMCEC as an important outcome of the 13 th Meeting of the Trade Working Group.
The policy recommendations highlighted by the participants are as follows:
1. Encouraging the establishment of a formal consultation mechanism between
regulatory authorities and trade community towards ensuring an efficient trade
environment for the interest of various stakeholders at the national level.
2. Utilizing Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) effectively for the
dissemination of trade, especially customs related information.
3. Encouraging the development of an effective Advance Ruling System in order to
enhance the certainty and predictability of customs operations
4. Promoting integrated Single Windows (SW) Systems and Trade Information Portals
for combining the transaction processing functions of SW Systems with a
comprehensive repository of trade-related laws, regulations, rules and procedures.
5. Leveraging international and regional cooperation and making use of successful
country experiences for promoting trade information availability.