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.