Analysis of Agri-Food Trade Structures
To Promote Agri-Food Trade Networks
In the Islamic Countries
54
Table 12: Percentage of Intra-OIC Exports Taking Place within RTAs, by Leading Product and
Regional Group, 2005 And 2016, Percent
African Group Arab Group Asian Group
2005 2016 2005 2016 2005 2016
Live animals 99.60 99.95 99.94 98.94 8.02 78.20
Tobacco 83.39 71.56 91.69 50.32 50.90 49.41
Oil seeds 99.93 89.62 72.50 85.98 32.84 47.01
Crude rubber 87.93 98.95 93.75 95.44 51.37 25.62
Cork and wood 97.98 78.34 97.40 96.77 46.30 47.20
Rice 72.94 49.70 96.04 94.16 54.76 42.21
Vegetables 43.05 23.65 93.40 95.85 89.37 69.94
Fruit and nuts 9.38 76.61 97.66 97.84 69.77 63.60
Coffee 91.83 78.85 75.57 83.65 51.76 56.11
Other edible products 98.44 77.69 81.86 74.66 75.70 62.75
Cotton 50.24 59.65 57.93 99.53 90.81 88.97
Bread products 16.70 85.08 88.14 83.22 61.70 55.24
Palm oil 36.50 33.32 94.75 92.11 30.65 28.65
Fish and crustaceans 66.04 45.06 39.78 94.67 88.86 65.92
Cocoa and chocolate 99.19 21.05 87.04 77.91 73.06 72.79
Rest of 06 98.12 91.08 52.83 74.44 96.68 77.58
Rest of 04 99.98 86.10 45.31 99.14 60.46 68.07
Source: UN Comtrade and Authors’ calculations.
These results confirm the importance of the regional dimension referred to throughout this
section. From a policy perspective, regional agreements play an important role in terms of
structuring trade in agricultural products. This insight is true across most products, although
rates vary for the reasons referred to above.
To see in further detail how RTAs can influence trade flows, it is informative to look at data on
tariffs to show just how much benefit exporters get from being within an RTA. Table 13 reports
preferential margins by regional group in 2005 and 2016. Intuitively, these numbers summarize
the degree of tariff preference accorded by RTAs at the beginning and the end of the sample. In
all cases, there is a clear increase in the margin of preference over time. The increase is clearest
in the African Group, where the impact of RTAs was limited in practice in 2005, but substantial
in 2016. The Arab Group also stands out for having particularly large preferential margins.