The second round, hosted by the Government of Turkey, was launched on November 24th, 2006, in Istanbul by the Ministers of Commerce of the member countries followed by the first session of the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC). The TNC, in its second session, considered the rules of origin and other trade-related issues for the preparation of the necessary ground in order to make the Trade Preferential System among the OIC countries TPS-OIC operational by January 1st, 2009. The move represents a very important step towards the realization of the 10-Year OIC Programme of Action objective of increasing the intra-OIC trade to 20% of total trade of Member Countries.
 The TPS-OIC, as a COMCEC project, has been on the agenda of the OIC since mid-1980s. The Framework Agreement for TPS-OIC was adopted by COMCEC and presented to the signature of the member countries in early 1990s. The member countries which ratified the Framework Agreement set up the TNC in 2003. Accordingly, the first round of trade negotiations for the establishment of the TPS-OIC was undertaken between April 2004 – April 2005, in Antalya. The outcome of the first round was the PRETAS (the Protocol on Preferential Tariff Scheme for TPS-OIC), which is a trade agreement with specific tariff reduction rates and a time-table.