Trade Preferential System among the Member States of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (TPS-OIC)
Background
The Framework Agreement on Trade Preferential System among the Member States of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (TPS-OIC) sets out the general principles towards establishing a trade preferential system among the OIC countries.
Among the main features of the Agreement are the Most Favoured Nation principle, equal treatment of member states and special treatment for Least Developed member states. The preferences include tariffs, para-tariffs and non-tariff concessions.
Objective
To promote intra-OIC trade through exchange of trade preferences among Member States of OIC.
The TPS-OIC aims to accord preferential tariff concession on selected goods among the participating OIC countries.
Status / Progress
The TPS-OIC will be operationalised after the Protocol on the Preferential Tariff Scheme (PRETAS) and the TPS-OIC Rules of Origin (TPS-OIC RoO) are ratified by at least 10 OIC Member States.
The Framework Agreement of the TPS-OIC and PRETAS came into force in September 2002 and 5 February 2010 respectively. To date, a total of 25 OIC Member States have ratified the Framework Agreement of the TPS-OIC and PRETAS has been ratified by 12 OIC Member States.
Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Syria have recently ratified the TPS-OIC RoO making the total number of ratifications to nine (9) Member States. The other Member States that have ratified TPS-OIC RoO are Malaysia, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Turkey and the UAE.
Benefit
The implementation of TPS-OIC would enable Malaysian exporters to gain preferential tariff treatment for selected products in the markets of the participating countries and enable exporters to gain competitive advantage over similar products originating from non-participating countries.