COMCEC Trade Outlook 2016
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Publication and Availability of Information: Agreement requests each Member States to publish
information in a non-discriminatory and easily accessible manner related to Customs Procedures
such as applied rates of duties/taxes, laws, regulations and administrative rulings, import/export
restrictions, appeal procedures, rules of classifications etc.
Advance Rulings: Member States are expected to issue advance ruling, which in brief is a written
decision provided by Customs Authority to an applicant prior to importation of goods, in a
reasonable, time bound manner while containing all necessary information.
Right to Appeal or Review: Agreement envisages that each Member States shall enable any person,
whom has a legal case with the Customs Authority, to appeal or request a review of the case by an
upper administrative authority. It is also requested from Member States to ensure that
appeal/review procedures are carried out in a non-discriminatory manner.
Pre-Arrival Processing: Member States are requested to have procedures allowing submissions of
import documentation (such as manifests or other required information) prior to arrival of goods to
Customs for the sake of expediting release of goods upon arrival.
Electronic Payment: Moreover, Member States are expected to have electronic payment systems for
duties, taxes, fees and charges incurred upon importation and exportation.
Freedom of Transit: Agreement requests Member States to not seek, take or maintain any voluntary
restraints or any other similar measures on traffic transit. Moreover it is expected that traffic in
transit shall not be conditioned upon collection of any fees or charges imposed in respect to transit
excluding charges for transportation or administrative expenses related to transit.
According to the WTO13 implementation of the TFA has the potential to increase global merchandise
exports by up to $1 trillion per annum.
TFA will be operational after the formal acceptance of the Agreement by the two third of the WTO
members. As of August 2016, 92 members of WTO have ratified the TFA, Senegal and Uruguay being
the latest ratifiers. 15 OIC member states have ratified the TFA so far. These are Albania, Brunei
Darussalam, Côte d'Ivoire, United Arab Emirates, Guyana, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mali, Niger,
Pakistan, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Togo, Turkey and Afghanistan.
According to WEF (2014), which also measures the performance of countries in enabling trade,
performance of some of the OIC Member States in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and North
Africa is below average. On the other hand, some of the Member States such as Gulf Countries,
Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia and Albania performed better than the rest.
The analytical study titled “Facilitating Intra-OIC Trade: Improving the Efficiency of the Customs
Procedures in the OIC Member States” was prepared specifically for the 3rd Meeting of the
COMCEC Trade Working Group suggests that following factors are important in implementing
the customs reforms in the Member States in order to improve their trade performances:
•Political will
•Establishment of well-functioning coordination mechanism among the relevant government
agencies and private sector,
•Improving the legal framework,
•Institutional arrangements,
•Human resources management and,
•Allocation of necessary financing.
13 WTO, World Trade Report, 2015.