COMCEC Trade Outlook 2019
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entered into force in February 2010, and the Rules of Origin entered into force in August 2011.
Therefore, the legal basis of the system was completed.
In order to make the TPS-OIC system operational, 10
Member States have to fulfill two conditions at the same
time, namely the ratification of the three TPS-OIC
Agreements and the submission of the list of
concessions to the TNC Secretariat. As of December
2014, required number of countries having met
necessary requirements of the System has been reached. The Member Countries having met the
two conditions are; UAE, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, Iran and Morocco. Afterwards, in the 31st Session of the COMCEC, the
Ministers agreed to undertake necessary measures to finalize the procedures of TPS-OIC. In this
regard, 31st COMCEC Session invited the participating states to update the previously submitted
concession lists by March 1st, 2016 for the full implementation of the TPS-OIC. Moreover, 32nd
COMCEC Session called upon the Member States which have not yet signed or ratified TPS-OIC
Agreements, namely the Framework Agreement, PRETAS and Rules of Origin, to do so at their
earliest convenience and invited the GCC Secretariat, on behalf of its six member states, to
convey their updated concession lists at their earliest convenience to the TNC Secretariat with
a view to early utilizing market access opportunities to be brought by the TPS-OIC. So far,
Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Jordan, Bangladesh, Iran and Morocco submitted the updated
concession lists to the TNC Secretariat.
On the other hand, for successful implementation of the System, there are some measures
required to be undertaken by the Member Countries such as; printing TPS-OIC Certificate of
Origin documents, conveying specimen impressions of stamps to the Trade Negotiating
Committee Secretariat and completing the necessary internal legislative and administrative
measures. After completion of thementionedmeasures, the System is expected to be operational
in the near future.
Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT) which is an OIC Institution based in Morocco,
Casablanca, has also been organizing raising awareness activities for the TPS-OIC under its
capacity as the co-secretariat for the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC). Beginning with
January 2015, ICDT has successfully organized seminar on TPS-OIC in Turkey, Qatar, Suriname,
Indonesia and Sudan. The last training workshop on TPS-OIC was organized by ICDT in
cooperation with the COMCEC Coordination Office and ICCIA on 17-18 December 2018 in
Khartoum, Sudan in line with the relevant resolution of the 34 th COMCEC Session.
“TPS-OIC, which promises
more intra-OIC trade
is close to implementation”