AMMAN: Jordan was ranked 45th among 136 world countries in the “Enabling Trade Index 2016” released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation on Wednesday. According to the report, Jordan maintained the same ranking as in 2014 when the last report was issued.
The Enabling Trade Index (ETI) assesses the extent to which economies have in place institutions, policies, infrastructures and services facilitating the free flow of goods over borders and to their destination. The ETI was developed within the context of the WEF’s Enabling Trade programme, with the help of leading academics, partner organisations and companies, and building on the forum’s long tradition of research on development and its expertise in benchmarking.
“Jordan occupies the 45th place in the ETI sample, with a fairly consistent performance across the pillars,” the report said, adding that Jordan’s border processes score significantly better than the average in the region, with the cost of documentation and border compliance on both the import and export side being fairly low. It added that in terms of connectivity to markets, Jordan has seen an improvement in its shipping connectivity and the quality of rail infrastructure, although road infrastructure has slightly slipped. “Looking at Jordan’s market access, its exports enjoy friendly terms, with an average tariff of 3.5 per cent, while imports into the country face an average tariff of 7.4 per cent and the overall structure remains complex, especially in terms of tariff peaks,” the report indicated.
Regionally, Jordan ranked fourth among Arab countries, where the UAE ranked first and 23rd globally, followed by Bahrain (42nd) and Qatar (43rd). The ETI consists of an aggregation of individual indicators measuring various trade-enabling factors. These factors are organised into seven pillars, according to the report. In the domestic market access pillar, the Kingdom came in 80th place, while it was ranked 22nd in foreign market access.
Jordan was also ranked 42nd in the efficiency and transparency of border administration, and 65th in the availability and quality of transport infrastructure. In the availability and quality of transport services, Jordan came in the 55th place. In the availability and use of ICTs pillar, the Kingdom was ranked 75th, and it came in 36th place in the operating environment pillar rankings.
