FACILITATING INTRA-OIC TRADE:
Improving the Efficiency of the Customs Procedures in the OIC Member States
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recognized by many countries. Governments have acceded to the relevant international
conventions, increased their communication with the business community, adapted
modern trade procedures, restructured the relevant government agencies with a view to
fulfill the new mandates and increased the skills of human resources of these agencies. On
the other hand, some countries especially developing countries and LDCs are facing
difficulties in implementing trade facilitation measures which prevents their
competitiveness.
1.1. DEFINITION
Trade facilitation has various definitions developed by different institutions such as WTO,
OECD, UNECE etc. Almost all of these definitions aim at simplifying and harmonizing
trade procedures in order to reduce time, complexity and cost of trade. Some of the
definitions used by international institutions are as follows:
WTO-“The simplification and harmonization of international trade procedures,
including activities, practices, and formalities involved in collecting, presenting,
communicating, and processing data required for the movement of goods in
international trade”. (WCO 2011)
OECD-“ Facilitating trade is about streamlining and simplifying international trade
procedures in order to allow for easier flow of goods and trade at both national
and international level” . (OECD Website)
UNECE-“The simplification, standardization, and harmonization of procedures and
associated information flows required to move goods from seller to buyer and to
make payments”. (UNECE 2012)
APEC-“The simplification and rationalisation of customs and other administrative
procedures that hinder, delay or increase the cost of moving goods across
international borders”. (APEC 2007)
EU-“Trade facilitation can be defined as the simplification and harmonisation of
international trade procedures including import and export procedures”.(EU
Commission website)
Trade procedures which are the main focus area of trade facilitation involve various
stages of work to be concluded by the traders to make exports or imports. These
procedures are not same in all the countries. Therefore, WTO definition provides a
description of the trade procedures. Trading Across Borders Index, a sub-index within
Doing Business Index also gives an idea on the areas to be focused for facilitating trade.
The Index measures four main processes which are very relevant for facilitating trade:
 Documents preparation