PURPOSE: to
improve the transparency of the statistical system relating to external trade
with non-member countries to enable it to react to the changing
administrative environment and to satisfy new user requirements.
LEGISLATIVE
ACT: Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the
Council on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member
countries and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95.
CONTENT: external
trade statistics (Extrastat) record Member States' imports and exports of
goods with non-member countries. This information is of essential importance
for European economic and trade policies and for analysing market
developments of individual commodities.
The purpose of
this Regulation is to revise the current statistical system of trade in goods
with non-member countries (Extrastat) in order to:
- make the
legislation clearer, simpler and more transparent;
- adjust the
system of extra-Community trade statistics to the changes to be
introduced in the procedures regarding the customs declaration through
the introduction of Single Authorisations for use of the simplified
declaration or the local clearance procedure as well as through
centralised clearance under the modernised Community Customs Code;
- reduce the
"Rotterdam effect" resulting: (a) in an over-representation in
external trade statistics of Member States having a high level of
customs clearance or export but playing only the role of transit
countries to the detriment of the Member States of actual destination or
dispatch of the goods and (b) in a double reporting of the same goods in
Extrastat as non Community goods and then in Intrastat as Community
goods coming from another Member State, with a comparable situation at
export;
- increase the
relevance, accuracy, timeliness and comparability of external trade
statistics, and establish a system for quality assessment;
- support the
linking of trade statistics with business statistics;
- respond to
user needs by compiling additional trade statistics using information
available in customs declarations;
- control, in
line with the European Statistics Code of Practice, the privileged
access to sensitive external trade data.
In order to do
so, the new Regulation:
- provides
more precise information on the data sources when different Customs
simplifications are implemented;
- foresees a
data exchange system between Member States, which is required under the
modernised customs system;
- enables to
compile and disseminate statistics according to the Member State of destination and of actual export. This will avoid the misallocation of trade
affected by Centralised Customs Clearance and the so-called 'Rotterdam effect';
- compiles
additional statistics on trade according to business characteristics and
provides trade broken down by invoicing currency and by nature of
transaction;
- establishes
a better system of quality assessment for external trade statistics.
Regulation (EC)
No 1172/95 shall be repealed with effect from 1 January 2010. It
shall continue to apply to data pertaining to reference periods before 1
January 2010.
ENTRY INTO
FORCE: 06/07/2009.
APPLICATION:
from 01/01/2010.