FACILITATING INTRA-OIC TRADE:
Improving the Efficiency of the Customs Procedures in the OIC Member States
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Figure 9: Number of OIC Member States Acceding to the Customs Related International
Conventions
Source: Data from WCO, UNECE and WTO
The WTO Valuation Agreement is part of the WTO package. Therefore, the WTO
Members are party to the Agreement. Currently 41 out of 57 OIC Member States have
joined the WTO. The 9 th WTO Ministerial Conference held on 3-6 December 2013 in
Bali, has adopted the Membership of Yemen. It will be the 42nd Member State joining
the WTO and its Valuation Agreement.
Multilateral cooperation in the area of customs also give results in the form of
standards, recommendations etc. Countries are urged through international institutions
to implement such recommendations. However, similar to the Conventions,
implementation of such recommendations is low in the Member States. For example the
concepts of single window, national trade facilitation bodies are among the relevant
recommendations.
The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, which will be opened to the signature in near
future, may attract the Member States because of its provisions on differential and
special treatment for the Developing Countries and LDCs may encourage the Member
States to accede it.
-Regional Cooperation
Regional economic groupings, which aim at increasing regional trade give special
emphasis on removing the obstacles hindering trade. In this context, many of them
initiated specific trade facilitation measures to ease the burden of customs formalities.
On the other hand, some of the economic groupings regulated some aspects of trade
facilitation and customs related issues in specific articles of their trade agreements.