Strengthening the Compliance of the OIC Member States
to International Standards
47
To examine the question of enhanced participation in greater detail, it is useful to explore the example of
ISO.3 ISO is conscious of the need to involve developing countries in its processes, as they account for
over three quarters of its total membership. Its actions in this area are guided by its Action Plan for
Developing Countries. ISO has country specific programs, including in collaboration with other agencies
like UNIDO. The ISO Academy offers training programs in areas relevant to standards development. In
addition, it facilitates twinning arrangements, where developing country standards professionals work
with their counterparts in developed countries. ISO’s PDC on Developing Countries provides a forum for
discussing development-related issues. Supporting individual developing country delegations in their
participation in ISO’s work relies on external donors for financing, and so is undertaken on a case by
case basis.
5 STANDARDS AND OIC MEMBER STATES’ EXPORTS
The main focus of this report is on standards infrastructure in OIC member states. However, an
important part of the more general set of issues surrounding standardization and trade relates to the
position of OIC member states’ exports. Specifically, it is useful to examine the extent to which standards
issues crop up as measures that potentially hold back OIC member states’ exports both intra- and extra-
regionally.
The analysis presented in this section, which looks at the standards faced by OIC member states in
import markets, cannot make any claim to universality. The reason is twofold. First, the OIC is a diverse
grouping, with countries at different development levels, in different climactic zones, and with different
levels of sophistication when it comes to product development and standards. Second, there is no global
data source that maps the entirety of the world’s population of standards and related measures. Existing
data sources are piecemeal, both in terms of the countries they cover and, most importantly, the types of
standards. Up to date data are only available for mandatory standards (SPS measures and technical
regulations), not voluntary standards, as there is no comprehensive source on the latter. The analysis
presented here therefore focuses on what is feasible in terms of the existing data, which is essentially
SPS measures and technical regulations.
Concretely, this section uses two data sources. The first one is CEPII’s NTM Map database, created using
data from UNCTAD’s TRAINS system. NTM Map provides comprehensive information on SPS measures
and technical regulations—mandatory standards in both case. It covers 71 countries, counting the EU as
29 (28 member countries plus the EU as a distinct entity); unfortunately, it does not currently cover the
USA. NTM Map uses TRAINS data on SPS measures and TBTs to construct indicators of their incidence.
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