UN Comtrade

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Towards IMTS, Rev.3 (1) Overview the Revision
Process(2) 2008 Worldwide consultation
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Need for IMTS Revision

• Changes in the way international merchandise
  trade is conducted
• Changes in the legal environment,
• Changes in related statistical frameworks, in
  particular the 1993 SNA and BPM,
• Changes in user needs,
• Need for further clarification of some existing
  concepts and improvement of the overall
  readability.

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Main areas for revision and updating

• General issue of coverage
• Scope Change of ownership
• Goods for processing
• Valuation
• Imports FOB
• Partner Country
• Country of consignment
• Sources of data and data compilation strategies
• Non-Customs data sources
• Institutional arrangements
• Data quality assurance

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Outline of the revision process

• 2006
• ? Review of National Practices
• 2007
• ? Development of multi-year strategy for update
  and establishment of an IMTS Expert Group
• ? Establishment of list of issues at the First
  meeting of the Expert Group, 3-6 Dec. 2007

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Outline of the revision process
2008 ? Endorsement of revision process by the
Statistical Commission, 26-29 Feb. ? Worldwide
consultation on a list of issues, May-July, plus
workshop in September ? Preparation of report on
the results from the worldwide consultation in
September/October ? Discussion of the report and
conclusions from the worldwide consultation and
of the revision outline at a Virtual meeting of
the Expert Group, November
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Outline of the revision process
2009 ? Discussion of status of IMTS, Rev.3 at
the meeting of the Task Force on IMTS in March ?
Worldwide Consultation on first full provisional
draft of IMTS, Rev.3, May to July ? Preparation
an updated provisional draft and discussion and
endorsement of this draft by the Expert Group in
September ? Preparation of the final provisional
draft of the revised recommendations and
submission to the Statistical Commission by end
of December
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Outline of the revision process
2010 ? Adoption of the revised recommendations
(and an implementation plan) by the Statistical
Commission, March 2010 ? Preparation of updated
Compilers Manual
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Participation in the revision process

• Statistical Commission
• endorsement of revision process and
• approval of final text
• Expert Group and Task Force on IMTS
• Assists UNSD in the revision process
• Two meetings plus one virtual meeting of EG
• Direct participation of countries
• two worldwide consultations
• via workshops

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Participation in the revision process

• Country replies to the first round of worldwide
  consultation
• 110 countries replied so far
• About 1000 individual comments - more than 50 per
  question
• Countries provided huge resource of background
  information and guidance for the revised
  recommendations

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Worldwide ConsultationExample of Coverage
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Coverage Definition of IMTS and Nature of
transaction covered
1. Current recommendation(s)
Coverage As a general guideline, it is
recommended that international merchandise trade
statistics record all goods which add to or
subtract from the stock of material resources of
a country by entering (imports) or leaving
(exports) its economic territory. Goods simply
being transported through a country (goods in
transit) or temporarily admitted or withdrawn
(except for goods for inward or outward
processing see IMTS, Rev.2, para. 28) do not add
to or subtract from the stock of material
resources of a country and are not included in
the international merchandise trade statistics.
Refer to IMTS, Rev.2, para. 14
2. Result from the 2006 NCDP Questionnaire
Question Yes in No in N/A in
As a general rule, do you include in trade statistics goods which enter (imports) or leave (exports) your economic territory (except for goods in transit and temporary admissions/ withdrawals)? 90.9 5 4.1
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Coverage Definition of IMTS and Nature of
transaction covered
3. Result from world wide consultations
Question 1 Should the basic definition of IMTS further elaborated by clarifying the terms adding to or subtracting from the stock of material resources (part 1 of the question), being simply transported (part 2) and temporary admission (part 3)? Yes in No in No Op. in N/A in
Part 1 Total of 110 replies 82 9 8 1
Developed (34) 91 6 3 0
Developing and transitional (76) 78 11 11 1
Part 2 Total of 110 replies 75 13 10 3
Developed (34) 82 12 6 0
Developing and transitional (76) 71 13 12 4
Part 3 - Total of 110 replies 85 7 5 4
Developed (34) 91 6 0 3
Developing and transitional (76) 82 8 7 4
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Coverage Definition of IMTS and Nature of
transaction covered
4. Selected comments (from total of 59 comments)

• Economy has to have the goods directly
  available. The definition should therefore
  include aspects of customs warehouses, processing
  and change of ownership.
• There is the need to include some examples of
  cases where the goods do not add to or subtract
  from the country's resources. For example, more
  and more goods are placed into special
  customs control areas and bond zones as buffer
  stock by overseas owners .
• More clarifications concerning temporary
  admissions in commercial free zones would be
  helpful.

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Thank youfor your attention