In March 2011, the United Nations Sta-tistics Division (UNSD) invited countries to participate in a worldwide consulta-tion on the annotated draft outline of the updated International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) Compilers Manu-al. The purpose of the consultation was to give countries the opportunity to re-view the suggested contents of the 28 individual chapters of the Manual, as reflected in the draft annotated outline. Countries were requested to provide comments and suggestions in order to ensure that the Manual addresses the issues and needs of compilers of mer-chandise trade statistics in all countries and regions, and UNSD is very grateful to all respondents.

1. Number 25
June 2011
S P E C I A L F E AT U R E : IN THIS ISSUE:
PROGRESS ON THE UPDATE OF THE
IMTS COMPILERS MANUAL Special feature:
agree with the suggested contents of  Progress on the update of the
Worldwide consultation
the individual chapters. Countries most IMTS Compilers Manual 1
In March 2011, the United Nations Sta- frequently requested elaboration on two
tistics Division (UNSD) invited countries chapters, notably concerning data com-
to participate in a worldwide consulta- pilation for national accounts and bal- Databases and Publica-
tion on the annotated draft outline of ance of payments purposes (Chapter tions:
the updated International Merchandise 24), and concerning trade indices
Trade Statistics (IMTS) Compilers Manu- (Chapter 27). The full report on the re-
 2010 International Trade
al. The purpose of the consultation was sults of this worldwide consultation is Statistics Yearbook, Volume
to give countries the opportunity to re- available on the UNSD website at: 1 – Trade by Country, availa-
view the suggested contents of the 28 http://unstats.un.org/unsd/trade/EG- ble online 1
individual chapters of the Manual, as IMTS/IMTS%202010,%20CM%20-%
reflected in the draft annotated outline. 20Report%20Worldwide%  Analytical trade tables pub-
Countries were requested to provide 20Consultation%20(June%202011).pdf lished in the Monthly Bulletin
comments and suggestions in order to of Statistics 2
Second meeting of the EG-IMTS
ensure that the Manual addresses the
issues and needs of compilers of mer- The Expert Group on International Mer-  EBOPS 2010 – CPC 2.0
chandise trade statistics in all countries chandise Trade Statistics (EG-IMTS) sup- Correspondence Table now
and regions, and UNSD is very grateful ports UNSD in the update of the IMTS available 3
to all respondents. Compilers Manual. In its second virtual
meeting, held from 8 June to 22 July Cooperation with Coun-
Of the 86 countries that returned their tries and Agencies
2011, the Group reviewed the initial
response forms, 49 provided com-
drafts of the first set of ten chapters of
ments, often giving very detailed feed-  UNSD’s request for addition-
the new Manual prepared by UNSD. The
back. The comments provide very im- al data fields – discussions
experts mostly agreed with the initial
portant guidance and useful input for with individual countries 3
draft of the ten chapters; however, this
the drafting process. Both the quantita-
was subject to numerous comments
tive results and the country comments You Have Asked Us
show that the overwhelming majority (Continued on page 2)
 Send us your feedback 4
D A T A BA S E S A N D P U B L I C A T I O N S :  Where can I find metadata for
2010 INTERNATIONAL TRADE STATISTICS YEARBOOK (ITSY), individual countries? 4
VOL. I –TRADE BY COUNTRY – AVAILABLE ONLINE
2010 ITSY, Volume I — Trade by Country points in time during 2011. Volume I - Upcoming Events:
presents detailed data for a total of 175 Trade by Country was compiled early in
countries (or areas), 93 of which have 2011 (May) to allow for the advance re-  Update: UNSD Seminar on
2010 data (representing approximately lease of an overview of international IMTS, Vilnius, Lithuania,
74% of 2010 world trade) on imports merchandise trade in 2010 and for a 26-30 September 2011 4
and exports by commodity and trading much earlier publication of all available
partner. All tables of Volume I were 2010 country (area) data. Volume II –
made available electronically at http:// Trade by Commodity, which contains Editorial note 4
comtrade.un.org/pb/ shortly after the detailed tables showing international
completion of the manuscript. trade by main commodity groups, is final-
ized approximately six months after the
The 2010 ITSY is being issued in two
(Continued on page 2)
volumes which are prepared at different
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/trade/default.htm

2. I nte r n a ti o n a l T r a d e S ta ti s ti c s N e w s l e tte r , N u m be r 2 5 , J une 2 0 1 1 Page 2
PROGRESS ON THE UPDATE OF THE IMTS COMPILERS MANUAL
(Continued from page 1)
and reservations which will be taken into Further process
account in the re-drafting or updating of
A further virtual meeting of the EG-IMTS is
the draft chapters. Numerous countries
planned for September 2011 to discuss
shared additional examples and materials
the initial draft of most (but preferably all)
http://comtrade.un.org concerning their national practices for in-
of the remaining chapters. The EG-IMTS is
clusion in the Compilers Manual. Concrete
expected to meet in December 2011 for a
examples are considered most useful in
physical meeting to review and endorse the
providing guidance to compilers of data.
provisional draft text of the updated IMTS
The report of the meeting has been made
Compilers Manual for submission to the UN
available at: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/
Statistical Commission in 2012 as an infor-
trade/EG-IMTS/EG-IMTS%20web%
mation item.
20announcement.htm
2010 INTERNATIONAL TRADE STATISTICS YEARBOOK, VOL. I -
TRADE BY COUNTRY - AVAILABLE ONLINE
(Continued from page 1)
All parts and tables of
the Yearbook are avail- completion of Volume I, since the prepara- tables and graphs for individual countries
able online: tion of these tables requires additional in Volume I and commodities in Volume II
country data that normally become availa- are taken from the publicly available UN
http://
ble later in the year. Volume II also con- Comtrade database (http://
comtrade.un.org/pb/
tains updated versions of the two world comtrade.un.org/db/default.aspx). Users
trade tables published in Volume I. are advised to visit UN Comtrade for any
additional and more current information as
The detailed information on trade of partic-
it is continuously updated.
ular countries by commodity and partner
(values and quantities) contained in the
ANALYTICAL TRADE TABLES PUBLISHED IN THE MONTHLY
BULLETIN OF STATISTICS
The analytical trade ta- The following analytical tables on international merchandise trade statistics have been
bles are published in the updated since the last issue of this newsletter. They are published in the Monthly Bulletin
of Statistics (MBS) and are also available online at: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/trade/
imts/analyticaltradetables.htm
Table Description Latest data Published
Fuel imports, developed economies: unit values,
T 18 1st quarter, 2011 Jun 2011
volume indices and value
UN Monthly
Bulletin of Statis- T 19 Indicators on fuel imports, developed economies 1st quarter, 2011 Jun 2011
tics (MBS) Total imports and exports by regions and countries or are-
T 35 March 2011 Jun 2011
as
They are also available
online at http:// T 36
Total imports and exports: value, volume and unit value/
March 2011 Jun 2011
unstats.un.org/unsd/ price
trade/imts/ T 37 Trade indices for countries in U.S. dollars 4th quarter, 2010 Apr 2011
analyticaltradetables.htm T 38 External trade conversion factors by countries 1st quarter, 2011 Jun 2011
T 39 Trade indices for regions in U.S. dollars 4th quarter, 2010 May 2011
Manufactured goods exports: unit values, volume indices
T 40 1st quarter, 2011 Jun 2011
and value
Copyright © United Nations, 2011

3. I nte r n a ti o n a l T r a d e S ta ti s ti c s N e w s l e tte r , N u m be r 2 5 , J une 2 0 1 1 Page 3
EBOPS 2010 – CPC 2.0 CORRESPONDENCE TABLE
NOW AVAILABLE
A draft version of the correspondence table The guiding principle was to assign CPC
MSITS 2010 Online between the new Extended Balance of Pay- product codes to only one EBOPS category.
Annexes: ments Services Classification (EBOPS This would enable data compilers to make
http://unstats.un.org/ 2010) and the Central Product Classifica- easy decisions when working from a CPC-
unsd/tradeserv/ tion (CPC 2.0) has been produced by the based data collection to an EBOPS-based
TFSITS/msits2010/ Interagency Task Force on Statistics of In- presentation of data. In a few cases howev-
annexes.htm ternational Trade in Services and is availa- er, such clear distinctions could not be
ble on its website at http://unstats.un.org/ made and one CPC product code had to be
unsd/tradeserv/TFSIT S/msits2010/ assigned to two or more EBOPS categories.
annexes.htm. Annotations on such cases are provided in
the table.
The table makes it explicit which detailed
service products of the CPC are allocated The EBOPS 2010 – CPC correspondence
to which category of the EBOPS 2010. The table is one of the three online annexes of
construction of the table is based on the the MSITS 2010. The other annexes will
detailed description of EBOPS services cat- relate the EBOPS 2010 respectively to the
egories provided in the revised Manual on Services Sectoral Classification List
To know more about the Statistics of International Trade in Services (MTN.GNS/W/120) and the ISIC, Rev.4
activities of the TF-SITS (MSITS 2010) and the Sixth Edition of the Categories for Foreign Affiliates in services
visit the website at: IMF's Balance of Payments and Interna- (ICFA, Rev.1). They will be posted as soon
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ tional Investment Position Manual (BPM6), as they become available at: http://
tradeserv/TFSITS/ and the explanatory notes describing the unstats.un.org/unsd/tradeserv/TFSITS/
default.htm services contained in each of the CPC prod- msits2010/annexes.htm.
uct codes (see http://unstats.un.org/unsd/
cr/registry/cpc-2.asp).
COO PERATI ON WITH COUNTRIES AND AGENCIES:
UNSD’S REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL DATA FIELDS – DISCUSSIONS
WITH INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES
As indicated in the March 2011 edition of plification and Harmonization of Customs
this newsletter, UNSD is requesting coun- Procedures, there are significant variations
For more about the ser- tries to provide their data with additional in the customs procedures used in individ-
vices-related classifica- data fields according to the new recom- ual countries or regions. Therefore, it will
tions, visit the Trade mendations for trade statistics (IMTS require some time and effort to establish a
Statistics Knowledge- 2010) if such data are available. These statistical reporting of this information that
base at new data fields are (i) second partner coun- satisfies the criteria of international compa-
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ try or area, (2) second value for imports rability. At this time, countries are request-
tradekb/Default.aspx (FOB), (iii) mode of transport, and (iv) cus- ed to provide the maximum information
tom procedure code (or applicable transac- available on the customs procedures ap-
tion code). In particular, countries asked plied to individual transactions and a de-
what information on customs procedures tailed description of this information. To
should be provided and whether there is a read the full version of the data request
standard coding structure. However, while letter, please visit: http://unstats.un.org/
most countries are believed to follow unsd/trade/IMTS/datacollection.htm.
broadly the Kyoto Convention on the Sim-
Copyright © United Nations, 2011

4. I nte r n a ti o n a l T r a d e S ta ti s ti c s N e w s l e tte r , N u m be r 2 5 , J une 2 0 1 1 Page 4
Y O U H AV E A S K E D U S :
SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK
We are seeking innovative ideas on how we ter, which will take place over several years
can better serve users of the UN Comtrade and incorporate significant quality improve-
database and make improvements to vari- ments, as well as new data elements and
ous aspects of the user experience. We features. Please send us your ideas and
intend to incorporate some of these ideas comments comtrade@un.org with the sub-
into the Comtrade upgrade, announced in ject ―Comtrade Feedback‖.
the September 2010 issue of this newslet-
WHERE CAN I FIND METADATA FOR INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES?
Visit our online
knowledgebase: The Trade Statistics Knowledgebase at country, either go within the Knowledge-
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/ base to ―UN Merchandise Trade‖ and then
Knowledgebase/ contains dedicated coun- to ―Metadata of countries (national practic-
try metadata pages for over 170 countries, es),‖ or enter the name of that country un-
which provide links to all available metada- der ―SEARCH.‖ For further details, please
http:// ta. It includes not only metadata available see the example of the Metadata page for
comtrade.un.org/kb to the Trade Statistics Branch of UNSD, but Slovenia at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/
also links to selected outside sources. To tradekb/Knowledgebase/Slovenia -
find a country metadata page for a specific Metadata?Keywords=Slovenia
UPCOMING EVENTS:
UPDATE: UNSD SEMINAR ON IMTS,
VILNIUS, LITHUANIA, 26-30 SEPTEMBER 2011
To learn more about As a follow-up to the Global Forum on Trade Statistics Lithuania. It will focus on the im-
upcoming IMTS work- Statistics (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ plementation of International Merchandise
shops, please visit: trade/s_geneva2011/outcome.htm) which Trade Statistics: Concepts and Definitions
http:// took place in February 2011 in Geneva, 2010 (IMTS 2010), the new international
unstats.un.org/unsd/ UNSD will organize a seminar on merchan- recommendations, with emphasis on linking
trade/ dise trade statistics for countries of Eastern trade and other economic statistics. For
workshops_imts.htm. Europe and Central Asia from 26 to 30 Sep- more information please go to: http://
tember in Vilnius, Lithuania. This seminar is unstats.un.org/unsd/trade/
organized in cooperation with Eurostat and workshops_imts.htm.
EDITORIAL NOTE
The Trade Statistics Newsletter is a quarterly publication prepared by the International Merchandise Trade
Statistics Section of the United Nations Statistics Division — Department of Economic and Social Affairs. This
Newsletter is not an official document of the United Nations nor does it express the official position of the United
Nations. Editorial team: C. Sean Lovell and Matthias Reister.
Contact: United Nations Statistics Division, International Merchandise Trade Statistics Section, New York, NY
10017, USA, Email address: comtrade@un.org or visit our website at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/trade/
default.htm.