United States: Trade With the Muslim World

The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an extraordinary summit in Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday, December 13, 2017, to discuss the repercussions of the announcement of US President Donald Trump last week recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Last Monday, the OIC appealed to its 57 member states to cut ties with any country that recognizes Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem.

If the members of the OIC revise bilateral trade relations with the US, which OIC members have the most flexibility to injure the US in terms of total trade volume or specific commodities?

• According to the United Nations, total US goods imports from OIC member states totaled $128 billion in 2016. While this made up about six percent of total US imports—roughly equal to total US import from the likes of Japan and Germany—it is nearly a 40 percent decline since 2011 thanks in large part to the price of commodities the US imports from OIC members.
• The primary US imports from OIC members were mineral fuels and oils, electrical machinery and equipment, articles of apparel and clothing accessories, and nuclear reactors, together accounting for more than two-thirds of all merchandise imports. The largest exporters to the US among the OIC member states were Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iraq, which represented 71 percent of US imports from the OIC in 2016. 
• The major exports from the US to OIC were aircraft, electrical equipment, nuclear reactors, vehicles, and optical equipment. The largest importers from the US among OIC member states were the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Turkey, and Indonesia, accounting for 66 percent of all US exports to the OIC.

Imports to the US | Exports from the US