Establishing Well Functioning National Trade Facilitation Bodies (NTFBs)
In the OIC Member States
11
1.2.3. The World Bank’s Trading Across Borders (TAB) Index: The positive effect of
implementing trade facilitation measures
The World Bank’s Doing Business: Trading Across Borders initiative measures “the time and cost
(excluding tariffs) associated with exporting and importing a standardized cargo of goods by sea
transport”.13 The Trading Across Borders (TAB) index in the Doing Business (DB) publication of the
World Bank (WB) ranks 189 countries in terms of their performance in this regard – on the basis of
three indicators (documents required to import/export; time required; and cost) taking account of
their distance to frontiers.14 Thus the index is a useful reference to gage the relative impact of trade
facilitation measures on trading costs.
A review of the index suggests that the implementation of trade facilitation measures (such as
rationalisation of documentary requirements and time spent at borders) has had a positive impact
for businesses around the globe, including for OIC countries. The following subsections review the
indicators relating to those countries ranked by the index as top performers as well as the ranking of
OIC Member State countries. The following subsections also reference the average and median
scores for these indicators because they are particularly useful to gage the relative performance of
the countries.
1.2.3.1. TAB Index: Top performers overall
The following table shows the top four countries according to the ranking provided by the WB TAB.
Specifically, it shows the progress made from 2006 to 2015 in terms of rationalising documentary
requirements and the time required to export and import. Notably, the reduction in the number of
days required to export and import appears to have been the most significant factor resulting in the
top ranking.
The indicators of these world’s best performers can serve as a benchmark for OIC Member State
countries and be used as a goal to be attained in terms of improved trade facilitation measures.
Table 1: Top Cases WB TAB 2007&2015
WTO
Members
Rank
WB
TAB
2015
(from
189)
Rank
WB
TAB
2007
(from
170)
Exports Imports
Document
s Time/Days
Costs Document
s Time/Days
Costs
2007 2015 2007 2015 2007 2015 2007 2015 2007 2015 2007 2015
Singapore 1 4 5 3 6 6 382 460 6 3 3 4 333 440
Hong Kong 2 1 2 3 6 6 425 590 2 3 5 5 425 565
Korea 3 28 5 3 12 8 780 670 8 3 12 7 1040 695
Sweden 4 9 4 3 6 9 831 725 3 3 6 6 831 735
Source: World Bank
13 World Bank, Doing Business: Trading Across Borders
14 For the DB TAB methodology see