Preferential Trade Agreements and Trade Liberalization Efforts in the OIC Member States
With Special Emphasis on the TPS-OIC
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concessions. On the other hand, the GCC countries, with tariffs of around 5% would need to make, on
average, lesser concessions. However, it is important to point out that MFN tariffs from 2003
onwards continued to fall, and therefore that the 2003 base may not be representative of the true
impact. Given that the agreement started its implementation in 2011 with the entry into force of the
Rules of Origin agreement, the real effect is likely to be diminished to the extent that MFN tariffs may
have declined over this period. In addition, it should be taken into account, when considering the
effective impact of the TPS-OIC that some of these countries (see for example the discussion in the
earlier section) might have been involved in FTAs with third countries. This means that the MFN
tariffs might not be representative of the real magnitude of the effect as the implicit effective applied
rated could be lower.
It is also important to note that the GCC is a customs union and, as a consequence, their members
already have free trade in place, and hence the TPS-OIC would only impact on trade as a result of any
reduction between them and non-GCC Parties of TPS-OIC System. This also applies to other
Contracting Countries of TPS-OIC that are engaged in FTA agreements such Turkey-Jordan and
Pakistan-Malaysia that were analyzed in detail above.