Strengthening the Compliance of the OIC Member States

to International Standards

Figures 22-27 repeat the analysis for the five largest value export sectors of the Arab group. By

comparing these figures with those for the African group, it is immediately clear that the product

composition of trade matters a great deal in terms of assessing the standards environment within the

OIC itself. In both Nigeria and Pakistan, electrical machinery and equipment is subject to a very high

number of standards—and it is important to recall that NTM Map only captures mandatory, public

standards. In particular in Nigeria, the sector is subject to 267 TBTs, which is a very high number, and

much more than is observed in the presumptively high standard EU. A similar situation is apparent in

the case of organic chemicals in Pakistan, where 49 TBTs are in force. A conclusion that can be

tentatively drawn from this analysis is that at least some OIC member states are overly reliant on

mandatory public standards in some sectors of export interest to other OIC member states. As noted

above, the clear trend in standards systems around the world is to reserve mandatory public standards

for core issues of health and safety only, with voluntary standards used to structure other marketplace

issues. It is important to nuance this conclusion, however, by noting that the coverage ratio of SPS

measures and TBTs is not close to one, which indicates that a significant proportion of sectoral exports

by value in fact achieve market access without being affected by these measures.

Figure 22: Frequency of SPS measures and TBTs in Nigeria, five largest value exports of the Arab

group

Source: NTM Map.

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Mineral fuels and oils

Organic chemicals

Plastics and plastic articles

Precious stones and metals

Electrical machinery and equipment

TBT Frequency SPS Frequency