COMCEC Trade Outlook 2016
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the exposure of OIC countries to external economic shocks either a fall in commodity prices
and/or demand slowdown in major export destinations.
Recent oil price shock underscores the need and case for policies to reduce reliance on oil
revenues and to diversify exports. Commodity prices fell sharply by 35.4 per cent mainly due to
slowing demand in especially in emerging economies, weak economic recovery in advanced
economies, ample oil supply, increases in metals supply and strong US dollar in 2015. The
decline in oil prices was more prominent as oil prices declined by 47 per cent to 52.4 dollar per
barrel in 2015 from 98.9 dollars per barrel in 2014.
There are great differences among the member states in terms of economic development and
the structure of trade. Creating an enabling environment for trade remains one of the main
challenges for the OIC Member States. To this end, policies towards trade liberalization, trade
promotion, and trade finance and trade facilitation become priority areas in policy reform
agendas of the Member States.
During the recent decade, most of the OIC Member States have liberalized their trade. 44 out of
57 Member States have acceded to the WTO. Moreover most of them have joined one or more
RTAs. However, many of the Member States still apply higher tariffs and non-tariff barriers to
the imports.
Higher transport costs and cumbersome procedures in external trade also constitute a
significant problem in some of the Member States, hindering not only their foreign trade but also
their economic and social development. Moreover, access to trade finance also constitutes an
obstacle in some of the Member States. Inadequate financial resources limit the SMEs export
capabilities to export in several Member States.
COMCEC aims at enhancing economic and commercial cooperation among the 57 OIC Member
States. Since 1984, COMCEC has initiated many cooperation programs and projects towards
increasing intra-OIC trade and addressing the common challenges. Some of these programs and
projects have been realized successfully. Taking into consideration the diversity a trade patterns
of the Member States and the common challenges faced by them, the COMCEC Strategy has
identified trade as one of its cooperation areas.
Under this cooperation area, the Strategy defined trade liberalization, trade facilitation, trade
promotion and trade financing as the output areas in order to reach its strategic objective, which
is “enhancing trade among the Member States”. Furthermore, the Strategy brought two new
implementation instruments, namely Trade Working Group and the Project Cycle Management
(PCM) to reach its target.
The implementation of the Strategy with the active participation of the Member States will
contribute to improving the trade environment in the Member States and enhancing intra-OIC
trade.