COMCEC Trade Outlook 2019
43
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 61 hours, the OIC average is 91 hours. On the
other hand while average costs encountered for documentary compliance in imports 160 USD
in world, it is 265 USD in the OIC countries.
Figure 52: Time and Cost for Complying Documentary and Border Compliance
Source: WB Doing Business data, 2019
Figure 53 depicts the rankings of OIC countries based on the distance to frontier scores in WB
Doing Business 2019. Out of the 190 countries covered by theWB Doing Business although there
are a few OIC countries such as Albania (rank 24), Turkey (42), Malaysia (48) and Palestine
(rank 54), andMorocco (rank 62) which ranked relatively better, many OIC countries are ranked
at the last places.
97.3
72.8
126.3
97.7
73.7
72.5
102.4
91.2
58.0
67.9
105.4
75.5
55.7
48.3
70.3
61.1
12.5
2.4
8.5
3.4
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time to export: Border compliance (hours)
Time to export: Documentary compliance (hours)
Time to import: Border compliance (hours)
Time to import: Documentary compliance (hours)
OECD high income World Average Middle East & North Africa OIC Average Sub-Saharan Africa
605.8
168.8
684.3
283.5
460.3
192.4
568.5
264.5
442.4
244.6
536.0
269.0
396.4
125.5
450.2
160.2
139.1
35.2
100.2
24.9
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Cost to export: Border compliance (USD)
Cost to export: Documentary compliance (USD)
Cost to import: Border compliance (USD)
Cost to import: Documentary compliance (USD)
OECD high income World Average Middle East & North Africa OIC Average Sub-Saharan Africa