Establishing Well Functioning National Trade Facilitation Bodies (NTFBs)
In the OIC Member States
44
vi. Funds
vii. Institutionalized Meetings
viii. Permanent Secretariat
ix. Three Level Structure
x. Clear structured both instances: public and private
Please note that more recommendations will be presented in the last section of this study in this
regard.
3.3. OIC Members with NTFBs or similar mechanisms
Table 5 shows the OIC Members with an established NTFB or similar mechanism. Approximately,
from out of 57 OIC Member States, 39 have created NTFBs that have such a coordination mechanism
in place, which is equivalent to 68% of all OIC Members. Therefore, the vast majority of OIC Members
are in compliance with this requirement of the WTO's TFA.
The chronological order in which NTFBs were created overtime can also be found in Figure 6. These
have been organized according to each regional group within the total 32 NTFBs that or similar
mechanisms that OIC countries have formed. A closer look to the OIC regional groupings can also be
helpful.
Within the Arab group, there are approximately 15 NTFBs or similar mechanisms from 22 Members
from this regional group. This represents an approximately 68% of the total Members in the Arab
group. It is important to mention that the establishment of National Transport and Trade Facilitation
Committees (NTTFCs) in most of the countries from this region63 were substantially supported by
ESCWA between 2003-2012.
Within the Asian group, there are 13 member countries that have put in place NTFBs or similar
mechanisms from a total of 18 Members that conform this regional group. This represents an 72%
from the total amount of members of this region that has established an NTFB or similar mechanism,
allocating the Asian group in the highest rank of having these mechanisms in place.
Within the African group there are 11 countries that have established NTFBs or similar mechanisms
from 17 Members of this regional group. Thus, this represents a 64% from the total amount of
countries from the OIC African group.
63 Ten member countries established NTTFCs between 2003-2012, namely, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Saudi
Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Yemen. See ESCWA, Trade Facilitation Initiatives in the ESCWA Region
E/ESCWA/EDGD/2013/Technical Paper.3 13-0143.