Enhancing Public Availability of Customs Information

In the Islamic Countries

little academic study on the benefits of increased information availability as it relates to trade

and Customs, the case studies rely heavily on primary material.

For the three field visit based case studies, the report uses Bangladesh, Morocco, and Senegal.

The countries were chosen based on the desirability of including one country from OIC regional

group, as well as obtaining a mix of income levels, and, most importantly, different performance

paradigms in the area under study, namely public information availability in trade and Customs.

Bangladesh and Senegal are Least Developed Countries as defined by the United Nations,

whereas Morocco is a middle income country. The case studies therefore also provide a variety

of experiences in terms of country income levels. The approach to trade in the three countries is

also quite different: Bangladesh has been highly dependent on selected export sectors, like

garments, to power income growth and poverty reduction, and it is resolutely turned towards

the world market, given persistent difficulties in accessing regional markets. Senegal, on the

other hand, acts as a gateway to West Africa, and sees itself very much in the role of a regional

hub. Even though it is an LDC, it has taken important steps forward on customs procedures and

information availability. Finally, Morocco is a close regional partner of other Arab Group OIC

countries, but also has a vital trade relationship with the European Union. As such, the three

countries all see the value of increased trade integration, but their policies have different

approaches and focal points, which lends a degree of comparability but also the ability to

contrast in the case studies.

For the field visit countries, the lack of academic literature in this area means that there is heavy

reliance on the opinions of experts, as gleaned from interviews during the field visits, as well as

direct observation of relevant websites and other documentation. The report also makes

reference to key data points from the TFIs and UNGS, whenever possible, and uses those sources

to contextualize country performance relative to the best practice frontier globally.