Enhancing Public Availability of Customs Information
In the Islamic Countries
13
availability is measured by 21 indicators, which are repeated here by way of clearly stating the
scope of public information availability as understood in the international trade community:
Customs website, online feedback, rate of duties, enquiry points, enquiry points operating hours,
enquiry points timeliness, import/export procedures, accessible documentation, advance
publication, advance publication – time, agreements publication, appeal procedures
information, Customs classification examples, advance rulings information, breaches
formalities, applicable legislation, judicial decisions, professional users site, user manuals,
website user friendliness, and policymaking transparency. Involvement of the trade community
is indicated by eight indicators: public consultations, notice-and-comment procedures,
consultations guidelines, targeted stakeholders, consultations frequency, drafts publication,
public comments, and policy objectives communication. Advance rulings has nine indicators
which cover dimensions of advance rulings including: tariffs, origin, total, validity, issuance time,
publication, within issuance time, and information. Finally, the appeals aggregate covers
thirteen indicators: procedural rules, judicial appeals, lodging time, delays avoidance,
information motives, introduced by Customs, introduced by traders, number of administrative
appeals, number of judicial appeals, time limits, legal framework efficiency, and judicial
independence. The aggregate OECD TFIs are based on indicator scores on each of these
dimensions, but that disaggregated data at the level of individual data points are not made
available by the organization: only aggregate results by pillar are available in quantitative form.
Data are available for 2012, 2015, and 2017, with substantially the same points covered in the
two rounds. As of 2017, the TFIs covered 163 countries, including numerous OIC member
countries.
The OECD indicators capture the different dimensions of trade information availability and
dissemination. But countries use different tools in order to achieve the aim of putting this
information, or some subset of it, into the public domain. Historically, and it is still the case in
some countries, the main tool was publication in official journals and registers, i.e. hard copies.
Naturally, over recent decades the emphasis has shifted towards the use of information
technology solutions in order to make the same information available at lower cost. Many
countries use a Trade Information Portal (TIP) as a one-stop online resource that provides
trade-related information. In addition, many countries combine the information availability
aspect of a TIP with the ability to process transactions, typically through an electronic single
window framework. As will be shown throughout the report, best practice at the global frontier,
as typified by Singapore, is to make maximum use of information technology to disseminate all
types of trade-related information, from regulations and tariff schedules, to official forms and
documents, and to combine this information with the ability to process enquiries and
transactions electronically.
The OECD TFIs were designed during the period when the TFA was being negotiated. The TFA
now represents an agreed baseline in international trade law for the public availability of trade-
related information. Many countries have moved beyond that baseline, and that is captured in
some of the data points, as well as the data discussed below. But the TFA is now the crucial
international legal document regulating public availability of trade-related information. This
point is revisited in more detail in Section 2.1, which addresses both the TFA and legal
instruments from other sources by way of describing the international legal basis for public
information availability in the trading system.