Strengthening the Compliance of the OIC Member States
to International Standards
57
sector considerations, such as diplomatic relations with the target country. Nonetheless, the data serve
to keep the “standards as trade barrier” argument in perspective: some standards can indeed be
problematic, but the overwhelming majority are not seen as being protectionist either in intent or
practice.
5.2 Intra-OIC Trade
As for the OIC’s trade with external partners, examined in the previous section, a consideration of intra-
regional trade starts from an analysis of the NTM Map data, using Nigeria and Pakistan as representative
markets for OIC member states’ exports. The same sectoral approach is used as in the previous section.
Figures 16-21 present results for the most valuable export products of the OIC African group. It is
immediately clear that the incidence of standards-related trade measures is quite different in Nigeria
and Pakistan from what is observed in the EU. First, a number of sectors of export interest to the African
group do not have SPS measures or TBTs at all, particularly in Pakistan. Second, the number of measures
concerned is generally less than for the EU. In addition, coverage ratios are typically comparable to, or
less than, frequency ratios, so there is not the same evidence of increased standardization in high value
sectors as in the EU. Although, as noted previously, prevalence and frequency do not translate directly
into trade costs, there is nonetheless indicative evidence that standards-related issues are less of a
factor holding back African group exports within the OIC membership than for external trade relations,
particularly with large, developed markets like the EU. This finding is indicative of the fact that
standards infrastructure is relatively underdeveloped in many OIC member states, particularly those at
lower levels of per capita income. However, it should not be concluded from the figures that exporting to
countries like Nigeria and Pakistan is necessarily “easier” than exporting to developed markets:
although the standards burden may be lighter, other procedural obstacles, including poor trade
facilitation, can still make it difficult to enter the market.