FACILITATING INTRA-OIC TRADE:
Improving the Efficiency of the Customs Procedures in the OIC Member States
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most common way of conducting consultations. Moreover, National Trade Facilitation
Bodies to be established for ensuring continuous dialogue among the relevant
government agencies and the private sector shall be utilized to improve coordination not
only with the private sector but also among the relevant border protection agencies.
-Cooperation with international institutions and Other Countries
International cooperation in the area of customs and trade facilitation can provide
technical and financial support to the governments in making the needs assessments.
Especially cooperation with the neighboring countries is extremely important to
facilitate movement of the Cargo for exports, imports and transit more easily.
WTO, WCO and the World Bank are some of the relevant international institutions
providing technical assistance in the area of customs modernization and trade
facilitation. WTO Trade Facilitation Needs Assessment has been conducted in many
Developing and Least Developed Countries. Some countries also used the TRS
developed by the WCO for making needs assessments such as Kenya, Uganda, and
Australia etc. Time-release studies (TRS) can be an excellent way to identify problems
faced in clearing process and the reasons of such problems.
“The WCO Time Release Study (TRS) is a unique tool and method for measuring the
actual performance of Customs activities as they directly relate to trade facilitation at the
border. The TRS thereby measures relevant aspects of the effectiveness of operational
procedures that are carried out by Customs and other regulatory actors in the standard
processing of imports, exports and in transit movements. It seeks to accurately measure
these elements of trade flows so that related decisions to improve such performance can
be well conceived and thereby carried out.” WCO (2011)
Once the problems are identified through the TRS Study, the Customs Administration is
expected to take necessary steps to overcome these obstacles. TRS study can be
conducted periodically to measure the impact of the customs reforms. For example,
Australia has conducted TRS Study annually between 2007-2012 period. This practice
provided the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to follow-up the impact
of its efforts.
Some of the developed countries are providing financial and technical assistance in
identifying the needs of the Customs Administrations of the developing Countries and
the LDCs. For example USAID is very active in assisting the developing countries
through its Trade Capacity Building Project (TCBoost). “Customs operations” is an
important component of the program which reached USD 19.53 Million in 2012
according to the USAID. In order to make the program more effective a needs
assessment tool namely TCBaseline was prepared in 2009. TCBaseline is a tool that can
be used by a small assessment team to identify and address operational and