COMCEC Trade Outlook 2018
41
In many OIC countries, excessive delays at customs and the resulting costs are one of the most
important non-tariff barriers affecting international trade. As shown in Figure 52 the cost and
time associated with submitting the necessary documents to clear the goods is above the world
average in the OIC countries. While world average for time needed for documentary compliance
in imports is 66 hours, the OIC average is 100 hours. On the other hand while average costs
encountered for documentary compliance in imports is 168 US dollars in world, it is 283 US
dollars in the OIC countries.
Figure 52: Time and Cost for Complying Documentary and Border Compliance
Source: WB Doing Business data
Figure 53 depicts the rankings of OIC countries based on the distance to frontier scores in WB
Doing Business 2017. Out of the 190 countries covered by theWB Doing Business although there
are a few OIC countries such as Albania (rank 24), Palestine (rank 49), and Jordan (rank 53)
which ranked relatively better, many OIC countries are ranked at the last places.
95
112
74
63
04
09
02
13
103
136
88
100
100
107
78
73
66
75
55
58
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Time to import: Documentary compliance (hours)
Time to import: Border compliance (hours)
Time to export: Documentary compliance (hours)
Time to export: Border compliance (hours)
World Average OIC Average Sub-Saharan Africa
OECD high income Middle East & North Africa
266
541
244
464
26
112
35
150
300
687
215
592
283
599
200
484
168
471
140
407
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Cost to import: Documentary compliance (USD)
Cost to import: Border compliance (USD)
Cost to export: Documentary compliance (USD)
Cost to export: Border compliance (USD)
World Average OIC Average Sub-Saharan Africa
OECD high income Middle East & North Africa