International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS)

Cooperation with international and regional Organizations

Task Force on International Merchandise Trade Statistics

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is member of the Task Force on International Merchandise Trade Statistics (TF-IMTS) which meets once a year. The other members of the TF-IMTS are the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Regional Commissions. The meeting reports are available on the website of the World Trade Organization at http://imts.wto.org/task_e.htm.

Below please find the reports of UNSD to the TF-IMTS meetings (list of all documents):

• Beirut, March 2010
• Bangkok, March 2009
• Vienna, March 2008
• Rome, April 2007
• Santiago de Chile, April 2006
• Bangkok, March 2005
• Addis Ababa, March 2004
• Geneva, May 2003
• Rome, April 2002
• Beirut, March 2001

Common Data Set

The Common Data Set (CDS) is a joint effort by Eurostat, OECD, UNSD, UNCTAD and WTO to reconcile their time series on merchandise trade statistics. For more information please go to the website of the World Trade Organization at http://imts.wto.org/task_e.htm. Regarding UNSD’s efforts to reconcile and explain any differences in the merchandise trade data published by UNSD please see the information on the Annual Totals Table on this website at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/trade/imts/annual%20totals.htm.

Cooperation in data collection and processing, workshops

In 1999 UNSD and OECD agreed to collaborate in the data collection for OECD countries with OECD collecting the data and forwarding it to UNSD. Further, in order to publish identical data for OECD countries, UNSD and OECD developed a joint processing system which is in operation at both organizations since 1. January 2006.

Further partners in data collection are the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Social and Economic Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

In addition, UNSD collaborates with other organizations in the conduct of workshops. For further information please go to http://unstats.un.org/unsd/trade/workshops_imts.htm on this website.

• Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat http://www.caricom.org/
• Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) http://www.comesa.int/
• Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) http://www.ecowas.int/
• Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat)
• http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/
• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) http://www.fao.org/
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm
• International Trade Centre (ITC) http://www.intracen.org/
• Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) http://www.oecd.org/
• UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) http://www.unctad.org/
• United Nations Social and Economic Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) http://www.escwa.un.org/
• United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) http://www.eclac.org/
• World Trade Organization http://imts.wto.org/task_e.htm