FACILITATING INTRA-OIC TRADE:
Improving the Efficiency of the Customs Procedures in the OIC Member States
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regard. Countries are urged in different occasions to accede to these international
conventions.
Customs can play an important role in trade facilitation by speeding up its reforms,
providing best practices to other trade sectors, enhancing implementation capacity –
contingent on support from all stakeholders (Roy and Bangai 2005). It should be noted
that, Customs are often applying the procedures of different ministries. Therefore,
Customs reforms shall be carried out in cooperation and coordination with the relevant
ministries and agencies.
2.1. ASSESSING THE EFFICIENCY OF CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATIONS
The reform needs of the Customs Administrations may be assessed through using
various mechanisms together or separately. During the last decade considerable
progress has been achieved towards defining best practice in customs matters for
facilitating trade. Revised Kyoto Convention and the WTO Trade Facilitation
Negotiations provided a significant support in this regard.
Recently, the 9 th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Bali in December 2013 agreed on
the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement which is expected to be opened for signature in
2014. The Agreement includes provisions on Publication and Availability of
Information, Advance Rulings, Appeal or Review Procedures, Release and Clearance of
Goods, consularization, Border Agency Cooperation etc.
-Various Indicators Developed by International Conventions
The work of the international institutions on highlighting the impact of trade facilitation
and customs procedures on trade draw attention of the countries to this matter. World
Bank (Doing Business, Logistic Performance Index (LPI)), World Economic Forum
(Enabling Trade Index) and OECD (Trade Facilitation Indicators) are among the
institutions measuring the performance of customs formalities affecting international
trade.
Doing Business Report is published annually by the World Bank. Trading Across
Borders is one of the components of the report and measures the required average time,
documents and time for exports and imports of a standardized cargo (dry cargo in 20
foot container) for 189 countries. It has following four headings: Documents
Preparation, Customs clearance and technical control, ports and terminal handling and
inland transportation and handling.
In the area of “Customs Clearance and Technical Control”, the Index measures the cost
and time required for both exports and imports. The results show that there is a huge
difference between the best and low performers (see Table 2). While clearance process
takes only minutes in some of the countries, the same process needs more than 10 days