COMCEC Trade Outlook 2017
50
Trade Negotiating Committee, which is the responsible body for the TPS-OIC conducted another
round of negotiations for finalizing the Rules of Origin. The round of negotiations closed
successfully after the finalization of the deliberations on the Rules of Origin in 2007. The PRETAS
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; United Arab Emirates, 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 and Iran 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
and Indonesia. The last training workshop on TPS-OIC was organized by ICDT in cooperation
with the COMCEC Coordination Office on 13-14 September 2017 in Jakarta, Republic of
Indonesia in line with the relevant resolution of the 32nd COMCEC Session.
“TPS-OIC, which promises
more intra-OIC trade
is close to
implementation”