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Enhancing Public Availability of Customs Information

In the Islamic Countries

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it is in line with expectations that performance should be variable. The key result is that the OIC,

which is composed mainly of non-OECD countries, tends to perform than the non-OECD group

as a whole. This result suggests that the group has been active in working on this area of trade

facilitation, and has enjoyed considerable successes.

At the level of regional groups, the areas of achievements and remaining challenges tend to vary.

In the latter category are publication of regulations and advance publication, appeal procedures,

and advance rulings for the African Group; advance rulings and stakeholder consultations for

the Arab Group; and advance publication and establishment of NTFCs for the Asian Group.

Remaining areas are ones where there is evidence of important achievements, along with

general results suggesting forward movement over time.

3.4.

Conclusion and Lessons Learned

This review of the data has looked at the recent experiences of the three OIC regional groups,

both as groups, and at the level of individual countries. By focusing on data from two

international sources, it has been possible to identify significant policy changes at a detailed

level, and to show cases where country-level performance has either improved significantly

over time, or where it is now close to the global best practice frontier.

This Section suggests the following lessons from the detailed data review that has been

conducted:

1.

In line with the OIC’s heterogeneous nature, regional and country experiences vary

greatly with respect to public information availability.

2.

In a broad sense, Africa tends to have a lower level of performance than the other two

regions, but the fastest rate of improvement over time.

3.

The Arab and Asian Groups contain a variety of country experiences, but each has an

example of a country—the UAE and Malaysia—where practice is approaching the global

frontier. This stock of knowledge constitutes a valuable asset for the OIC’s membership,

as it suggests the possibility of knowledge sharing within the organization, as well as

capacity building and technical assistance if appropriate.

4.

Although the evidence differs across datasets, the general impression is that

performance on public information availability across the dimensions measured here is

generally improving over time. Countries need to be cautious about backsliding, but

generally the impetus is in the right direction, spurred, no doubt, by passage of the TFA.

5.

Having said this, at the country level, performance improvements tend to be piecemeal

rather than broad-based. There is a case for policymakers to revisit this approach: a

value chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so given the importance of information

flow for value chain optimization, it may be desirable to look at programs of broad-

based performance upgrading in the area of information availability.

6.

Particular areas in which further attention from policymakers is necessary include:

a.

African Group: Publication of regulations, and advance publication, as well as

appeal procedures, and advance rulings.

b.

Arab Group: Advance rulings, and stakeholder consultations.

c.

Asian Group: Advance publication, and establishment of NTFCs.