Trade Policy and Market Access
Oman has been a member of the WTO since 2000, alongside membership of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which have been the key factors shaping Omani trade policy. This has included reviewing and amending trade policy in areas such as: contingency trade remedies, government procurement, commercial companies, and investment. Oman’s average MFN applied tariff in 2012 was 5.7 per cent with agricultural exports into the country facing higher barriers (23.4 per cent) compared to non-agricultural exports (8.2 per cent). Oman participates in economic integration efforts such as the GCC, which has committed to trade negotiations for an agreement with the European Commission although official talks are suspended at the time of writing. Oman is also a member of the Pan Arab Free Trade Area and has a bilateral trade agreement with the United States, which entered into force in 2009 (WTO 2008).
WEF, 2012, Global Enabling Trade Report
WTO, 2012, Tariff profile (Oman)
WTO, 2013, Trade Policy Review (Oman)
Standard Compliance and Other Relevant Import/Export Restrictions
Oman places great importance on standards, conformity assessment and quality for facilitating trade, economic and industrial development. As a part of the GCC Customs Union, Oman is working toward the unification of its standards and conformity assessment systems with those of GCC through the Gulf Standard Organization (GSO). The majority Omani standards are either GSO standards or those derived from another international standards organization. Furthermore, the government seeks to harmonize Omani and Gulf (GCC) standards with International Standards of conformity assessment within the specifications of WTO principles on Technical Barrier to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures. However, at the time of writing, not all GCC standards were consistent with the requirements of SPS Agreements and GCC Member States do not uniformly undertake their notification requirements to the WTO. Oman accepted the TBT Code of Good Practice on 18 December 2000.
WTO, 2013, Trade Policy Review (Oman)