Improving the Border Agency Cooperation
Among the OIC Member States for Facilitating Trade
96
behind its peers in logistics capabilities. In the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index,
Albania ranks number 117 among the 160 countries. It falls behind its regional and income
group peers in practically all indicators. In another World Bank index, Doing Business Ranking,
Albania ranks slightly better, being number 97 among 189 countries. In one of the sub-
indicators most relevant to this study, Trading Across Borders, Albania is on the 37th place,
with a Distance-to-Frontier score of 91.6 %. This score makes it the best among all OIC
member states. In the OECD Trade Facilitation Indicators Albania performs better than its
regional and income level peer groups. It trades well in most of the indicators and is among the
top three OIC member states overall. In the measure most relevant to this study, External
Border Agency Cooperation, Albania gets a score of 1.74/2.00, leaving only three OIC member
states with a higher score.
Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), and additional Protocol 5
On 19 December 2006, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova,
Montenegro, Serbia and the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) on behalf of Kosovo signed an Agreement to amend and enlarge the Central European
Free Trade – CEFTA 2006 that entered into force in 2007 . The Agreement’s main objectives
are:
 Expand trade in goods and services and foster investment by means of fair, stable and
predictable rules.
 Eliminate barriers to trade between the Parties.
 Provide appropriate protection of intellectual property rights in accordance with
international standards.
 Harmonize provisions on modern trade policy issues such as competition rules and
state aid.
The new CEFTA 2006 is a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) that aims for full
liberalization of trade in the region and to address various non-tariff barriers to trade. It
replaces the network of 32 bilateral free trade agreements in the region, and introduces fully
liberalized trade of manufacturing products and largely free trade of agricultural products. The
objectives of CEFTA are to expand trade (and transit) in goods and services and to strengthen
cooperation in other trade related areas like investment, services, public procurement, and
intellectual property rights. CEFTA 2006 incudes in its framework issues that are not typically
covered under an FTA. Some examples are sanitary and phytosanitary standards, which are
major technical, non-tariff barriers to trade. It also includes competition rules (e.g. state aid,
investment, government procurement, and Intellectual Property Rights). Finally, the
Agreement drafts a framework for collaboration and arbitration system for dispute
settlements. The Agreement fully conforms to the WTO provisions and EU regulations.
Effectively implemented, the Agreement provides an excellent framework for the interested
Parties to prepare for EU accession.170
Currently, a Protocol on Trade Facilitation called the Additional Protocol 5 is under
negotiation among the CEFTA parties. This is primarily based on the WTO TFA Agreement but
its scope goes beyond what is laid down in the TFA Agreement. A few articles of the Protocol
regulate BAC activities. The essentials are briefly outlined below:
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