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The option chosen by OECD is to convert exchange rates for periods prior to entry into European Monetary Union (EMU), i.e. prior to 1999 for all members apart from Greece, which acceded in 2001, from the former national currency exchange rate using the appropriate irrevocable exchange rate. Such a conversion facilitates comparisons over time within a country and also preserves the historical evolution (i.e. growth rates). However, pre-EMU euro rates are notional units and are not always suitable to form area aggregates or for cross country comparisons. For further details, see The Statistics Brief Number 2, February 2002.

Euro Conversion rates

The OECD Merchandise Trade Statistics Geonomenclature presents the components of the main economic and geographic zones as well as the detailed statistical territories. All detailed components are also available in Excel format. 

Reporting countries:

Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union: Since 1999, Belgium and Luxembourg henceforth publish separate foreign trade results. Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union statistics are available from 1961 to 1998. Belgium data are available since 1993 and Luxembourg data are available since 1988. 

Czech Republic, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Poland, and Slovak republic: are now Members of the OECD and are presented in this publication as reporting countries. With respect to the available historical data, OECD-Total includes respectively Mexico from 1985, Korea from 1988, Hungary from 1991,Poland from 1992, the Czech Republic from 1993 and Slovak Republic from 1997.

Germany: Includes Eastern Germany since January 1991;

All area totals include intra-area trade.

Partner countries:

Germany: includes Eastern Germany on the whole period;

Switzerland and Liechtenstein: depending on reporter countries, trade with Liechtenstein can be included into Switzerland;

Yugoslavia: From 1992 onwards, no longer exists as such. Its constituent countries are Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Macedonia.

Czechoslovakia: From 1993 onwards, no longer exists as such and has been split into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

In general, data comply with the UN recommandations defined in International Merchandise Trade Statistics: Concepts and Definitions, Revision 2 (IMTS, Rev.2). For exceptions and for definitions of statistical territories, please refer to country notes.

Following the UN recommendations, the 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) 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.

Customs records should be the main source of the data; and the additional sources could be used where customs sources are not available. Goods should be included in statistics at the time when they enter or leave the economic territory of a country. In the case of customs-based data collection systems, the time of recording should be the date of lodgement of the customs declaration.

Lists of goods to be included, to be recorded separately and to be excluded should be provided. Specific goods are to be excluded from detailed international merchandise trade statistics but recorded separately in order to derive totals of international merchandise trade for national accounts and balance of payments purposes.

Trade system

There are two trade systems in common use by which international merchandise trade statistics are compiled: general trade system and special trade system. The United Nations recommendations advise using the general trade system that provides a more comprehensive recording of external trade flows than does the special system. It also provides a better approximation of the change of ownership criterion used in the 1993 SNA and BPM5.

General trade includes all goods that cross the national frontier including goods that are imported into and exported from custom-bonded warehouses and free zones. The general trade system is in use when the statistical territory of a country coincides with its economic territory so that imports include all goods entering the economic territory of a compiling country and exports include all goods leaving the economic territory of a compiling country.

Special trade covers goods that cross the customs frontier plus goods that are imported into and exported from custom-bonded areas. The special trade system is in use when the statistical territory comprises only a particular part of the economic territory.

Coverage of trade

The data cover all goods which add to, or subtract from, the resources of a country as a result of their movement into or out of the country. The following types of goods are therefore included or excluded:

Goods to be included in the detailed international trade statistics:
- Non-monetary gold; goods traded on government account; food and other humanitarian aid; goods for military use; goods on consignment; goods used as carriers of information and software (CD-ROM, diskettes); goods for processing; returned goods; electricity, gas and water; goods under financial lease; ships, aircraft and other mobile equipment; sea products landed direct from the high seas.

Goods to be excluded in the detailed international trade statistics:
- Monetary gold, direct transit trade, temporary imports and exports, transactions in second-hand ships and aircraft, stores and bunkers for ships and aircraft; goods treated as part of trade in services; goods for repair.

Methodology

Trade data collected by OECD mostly follow the UN recommendations. Furthermore, in European countries, two systems of data collection coexist, i.e. Extra-stats and Intrastat. Extra-EU trade statistics record movable property imported and exported by the EU Member country from and to countries outside the European community. Intra-EU trade statistics include the arrival and dispatch of movable property within the European community as recorded by each Member state of the EU.

Geographical classification

The geographical classification refers to areas of origin (or country of consignment) for imports and areas of consumption (last known destination) for exports. The statistical territory of these countries is defined in the OECD Geographical Nomenclature.

A lot of methodological information about mirror statistics, measurement of EU trade, adjustements od merchandise trade for Balance of Payments ... are available in the The Statistics Brief, October 2001.

Differences between OECD statistics and Community statistics of Eurostat

The Monthly Statistics of International Trade now publishes data received directly from the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT) under the name EU15-Extra EU and EU12-Extra EU which excludes intra EU-trade.

As the example below shows,  European External Trade Statistics, which cover the European Union as a whole, and the statistics compiled by the EU Member States and sent to OECD, which are concerned with the national dimension, are not always directly comparable. There can be methodological differences, which make precise comparison of these statistics impossible.

The principal differences are as follows:

- Breakdown by partner country
For arrivals of goods from other EU Member States, certain EU Member States record the country of origin as the partner country in their national statistics, whereas it is the EU Member State of consignment that appears in the Community statistics relating to the same goods movement.

- Treatment of goods in transit
Some EU Member States, particularly Belgium and the Netherlands do not record goods, which they consider to be 'in transit'. This covers, firstly, the import of goods from non-member countries which are customs cleared in these EU Member States before being dispatched on to other EU Member States and, secondly, goods from other EU Member States which are then immediately re-exported to non-member countries.
These goods are normally recorded for Community Statistics purposes under intra- or extra-EU trade, as appropriate. This phenomenon is known as the 'Rotterdam effect'

- Other differences
Other methodological differences can cause discrepancies between national and Community statistics (for example: classification at national level as 'general trade' rather than 'special trade', or not recording 'repairs' on the grounds that they are considered as services).

Example :

Japanese goods are imported into Europe; they are released for free circulation in Germany, then dispatched to France (EU Member State of consumption). For such an operation, the various recordings will be as follows:

For European statistics, three operations are recorded:
- import of goods originating in Japan (with Germany as the declaring Member State, since the customs declaration is made there);
- dispatch (intra) from Germany to France;
- arrival (intra) in France from Germany.

For German national statistics, no trade is recorded, as the import from Japan and dispatch to France is regarded as transit.

For French national statistics, goods originating in Japan are entered as imports. France records Japan as the country of origin, as indicated on the Intrastat declaration. This information is considered statistically more relevant at national level.

Intrastat

The advent of the Single Market 1 January 1993, with its removal of customs formalities (the traditional source of statistical data) between Member States leads to the adoption of a specially designed collection system, Intrastat, for statistics on intra-Community trade.
These changes necessitate greater vigilance on the part of statistical users because they obviously affect the nature, quality and coverage of the data. In particular, the introduction of Intrastat in 1993 involved a methodological break with the past and affected the quality of the statistics.

Publications:

Monthly Statistics of International Trade publication

SourceOECD - Monthly Statistics of International Trade

OECD International Trade Statistics