ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT

ORGANISATION DE COOPÉRATION ET DE DEVELOPMENT ÉCONOMIQUES

OECD OCDE

OECD OCDE1

Status of OECD’s International Trade Statistics databases

STATISTICS DIRECTORATE – INTERNATIONAL TRADE &STRUCTURAL ECONOMIC STATISTICS

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OECD International Trade databases

International Trade by Commodity Statistics

(ITCS)

Monthly Statistics of International Trade

(MSIT)

Annual data: Monthly data:

• import and export data

• 30 OECD countries + CHN, HKG, TWN

• 260 partner countries

• Values (in USD) and quantities

• From 1961 onwards

• 7 classifications :

- by activity : ISIC 2 & 3

- by commodity : HS 88, 96 & 2002 ; SITC 2 & 3

• 4 types of data

– Aggregate trade indicators

– Volumes and unit value trade indices

– Trade values by SITC sections

– Trade values by partner countries

• From January 1960 onwards

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Collection of annual data

• 50% of 2002 data were available in June 2003 and 100% in February 2004

• Timeliness of data release remains a key issue with impacts on:

> delivery to UNSD and WTO

> publication schedule

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Dissemination of annual trade data

• 5 paper versions are released every 2 or 3 months

• 4 CD ROMs are released every 2 months.

• On-line database available as updates progress: – SourceOECD– OLIS– Statistics portal

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Collection of monthly data

Internet sites use:

Quickest progression

Publication / Disk & CD:

Sharp drop over the last 4 years (from 24% to 6%)

E-mails:

highest share 61% in 2003

Trends in data transmission (99-03)

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Dissemination of monthly data

The MSIT database is published through:

• a monthly paper publication • a monthly CD-ROM• On-line access trade data:

> With the free statistics portal> OLIS access> SourceOECD

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Improving transmission through Internet sites

Improving the level of details provided:

– Trade by partner country sometimes limited

– Figures are usually rounded

– Series are often too short to allow historical revisions

– The structure of some web sites is usually subject to sudden changes

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Improving transmission through Internet sites

Improvement needs in the standardization in the formats used:

– Too many different formats used

– Improvement in the use of modern methods, using public institutional sites providing detailed and comprehensive files

– If not possible, email transmission of customized files

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General issues for discussion

Need of a better co-operation on:

• Data and Metadata availability and comprehensiveness

• Advance schedules of data sets availability

• Agreed and stable Internet site techniques to develop automatic monthly data transfer

• Reception of monthly revised data on a regular basis