Improving Customs Transit Systems
In the Islamic Countries
107
Response 0 1 2
Adjustment of inquiry points’ operating hours to commercial
needs
88.90% 11.10%
Timeliness of inquiry points 80.00% 20.00%
Required documentation easily accessible for downloading 24.40% 57.80% 17.80%
Information about procedures published in advance of entry
into force 17.80% 35.60% 46.60%
Publication of agreements with any country or countries
relating to the above issues 55.60% 42.20% 2.20%
Publication of information on procedural rules for appeal 42.20% 44.40% 13.30%
Applicable legislation published on Internet 22.20% 73.30% 4.50%
Publication of judicial decisions on Customs matters 95.60% 4.40%
Dedicated interactive page for professional users/companies 80.00% 20.00%
User manuals available online 48.90% 51.10%
Source: WTO TFA indicators database
3.2.5.2 Involvement of the trade community
Regarding the involvement of the trade community , 53.3% of the MS have one or
more structures for regular public consultations, while 40% of countries have in place a specific
public consultation only when introducing or amending trade-related laws, regulations and
administrative rulings of general application. In only 13.3% of countries, there are notice-and-
comment procedures, including trade and border issues and regulation, and 57.8% have such
procedures they do not apply to trade and border issues and regulation. More than a half of
countries don't have established guidelines and procedures in place, and the consultation takes
place at random, while 44.4% of the countries have established guidelines and procedures to
ensure systematic handling of consultation structures and opportunities.
When it comes to stakeholder groups such as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Large
traders, Transporters, Customs brokers, and citizens, 55.6% countries have at least 4 or more
stakeholder groups involved, 24.4% have 3 stakeholder groups involved, and 20% have less
than 2 stakeholder groups involved, but the number of public consultations during the previous
three years are very low for most of the countries. Almost half of the OIC MS don't publish drafts
prior to entry into force, while, 42.2% of the countries make available drafts (or summaries) of
trade-related laws, regulations or administrative rulings of general application before entry into
force of a rule and stakeholder comments are possible. In 57.8% of the countries, public
comments are taken into account from, but without explanations how public comments have
been dealt with online or in the legislation's final draft.