Moves Towards an Islamic Common Market: Evaluation of the Potentials

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation members had proposed the establishment of an Islamic Common Market among themselves in the early 1970s. This notion currently listed among the core objectives of the Organization and, to this end, the members adopted the TPS agreement in 1990. This study provides the first systematic and comprehensive evaluation of the TPS signatories’ potential to increase trade by applying five different trade indexes suggested in the literature. The findings reveal different characteristics of the TPS countries and shed light on their potential for enhancing economic cooperation. In general, the results are in favor of the establishment of a Preferential Trade Agreement among the TPS signatories