FACILITATING INTRA-OIC TRADE:
Improving the Efficiency of the Customs Procedures in the OIC Member States
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The articles in the chapter have provisions for efficient customs procedures. Moreover,
according to the Article 6.16 a Customs Committee is established to review the customs
related provisions.
Bilateral cooperation among the neighboring countries is crucial for facilitating bilateral
and transit trade. The RKC has some provisions for the neighboring countries. These
include the Standards 3.3 and 3.4, which are as follows:
3.3. Standard
Where Customs offices are located at a common border crossing, the Customs
administrations concerned shall correlate the business hours and the competence of
those offices.
3.4. Transitional Standard3
At common border crossings, the Customs administrations concerned shall, whenever
possible, operate joint controls.
In addition, the two countries should coordinate the physical layout of the border
crossing in terms of the number of lanes, transit lanes, parking lots and other relevant
facilities in accordance with Art. 6 of Annex 8 of the
(UNECE 2012).
Coordination among the two neighboring countries in this manner will have significant
impact on trade. Such cooperation is crucial especially for the landlocked countries.
Because Many of them are suffering from underdeveloped customs formalities in the
transit countries.
“Regional Cooperation” on customs matters is popular among the economic or trade
groupings. EU, APEC and ASEAN are some of these groupings which have some
programs and projects for facilitating intra-regional trade. APEC has Trade Facilitation
Action Plan, ASEAN has ASEAN Single Window Initiative and the EU has initiated
several projects such as Customs 2013
Programme etc.
“Multilateral Cooperation” has also grown rapidly since 1990s. International
institutions, including WCO, WTO, UNECE, World Bank, UNCTAD and the OECD
are working individually or collectively towards increasing the efficiency of the
Customs Administrations. Various international agreements, recommendations,
guidelines have been developed and many capacity building projects have been
implemented.
3 Transitional Standard is defined by the RKC as “a Standard in the General Annex for which a longer
period for implementation is permitted”.