Reviewing Agricultural Trade Policies

To Promote Intra-OIC Agricultural Trade

In terms of SPS measures collected in Table F.13, “Animals” and “Vegetables” have considerably

higher CRs than “Food Products”, “Hides and Skins” and “Wood” as expected. In fact, in many of

the OIC and non-OIC countries, “Animals” and “Vegetables” imports are fully subject to SPS

regulations. Compared with EU that has average CRs over 99% for “Animals” and “Vegetables,”

only the Arab group have high averages closer to the EU levels. The table also shows that the

Arab group countries, on average, have higher CRs for “Food Products” as well. Regarding the

TBT measures presented in Table F.14, there exists a considerably larger variation in all five

product groups and both for the OIC and non-OIC countries. In some countries and some product

groups, CR is less than 1% whereas in some others the entire import value is subject to TBTs.

Compared with the EU that records CRs of over 99% for “Animals”, “Vegetables”, “Food

Products” and “Hide and Skins” each and a CR of over 80% for “Wood”, the OIC figures remain

much lower with certain country-product exceptions. Missing data is much common in the case

of CRs associated with pre-shipment inspection and other formalities (Table F.15). There is

again a sizable degree of variation across countries and product groups. The OIC countries have,

on average, larger levels of CR compared to the EU average.

It remains a difficult task to draw a definite policy conclusion out of this overview of NTM data

given the limited coverage of product and country groups. However, since “Live animals” and

“Meat” stand out as product divisions that may serve a potential to promote intra-OIC trade and

that currently have lower degrees of tariff protection within the OIC, the analysis of existing

NTMs for “Animals” is a crucial aspect of promoting intra-OIC agricultural trade. Standardization

issues and Halal certification enter the picture from this angle; a unified system of standards and

Halal certification principles accepted and exercised by all of the OIC member countries would

directly contribute to the elimination of NTM-related barriers that are adversely affecting the

intra-OIC trade flows in “Live animals” and “Meat.”

The notion of establishing common standards among the Islamic countries dates back to mid-

1980s, while the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC) has initiated

its activities in 2011. The main objective of SMIIC is to establish harmonized standards for

expedited exchange of goods and services among the OIC member countries by eliminating

technical barriers to trade in broad sense. As underlined by COMCEC (2018b), SMIIC is the only

global body working for the establishment of common standards and accreditation frameworks

among Islamic countries. The Standardization Management Council (SMC) is the main organ of

the SMIIC that has been assigned with the task of development of OIC/SMIIC standards. SMC

governs the activities of 15 technical committees specialized on Halal food, Halal cosmetic,

energy efficiency and renewable energy, tourism, transportation, leather, jewelry, etc. The 6

technical committee (TC6) specializes on agricultural products covering “agricultural,

horticultural, and dairy products, food products of livestock, the products of poultry and bee

raising, the edible products of forestry.” (SMIIC, 2018). Of 57 OIC member countries, 37

countries are also participant countries of the SMIIC

where Bosnia and Herzegovina, Thailand

and the Turkish Cypriot State are observer states.

COMCEC’s (2016) analysis on the compliance of the OIC member states to international

standards indicates that the OIC countries have varying degrees of compliance to harmonized

international standards such as those of ISO, IEC and the Codex. The low degree of participation

in these international standardization bodies is a challenge faced by many OIC member

These are Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia,

Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Pakistan,

Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Suriname, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, UAE, and Uzbekistan.