Inter-Agency Task Force on International Trade Statistics

           

Promoting the development of international standards

Improving international cooperation in the collection, processing and dissemination of trade statistics

Coordinating the work on capacity building

Acting as a forum to identify new conceptual and data compilation issues

Improving the availability, quality and comparability of international trade statistics

Promoting the development of national statistical systems that enable the provision of the best quality estimates of trade in value added

Promoting integrated accounting frameworks that give greater emphasis to firms engaged in global value chains

MEMBERS     Eurostat, FAO, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, UNIDO, UNSD, UN regional commissions, WCO, WTO

Methodology

TFITS promotes the development of international standards (e.g., IMTS and MSITS) and respective compilation guidance, systems and classifications for international trade statistics.

Meetings

TFITS meets once a year to document and coordinate its efforts in supporting the implementation of international standards and facilitating improvements to data reporting by trade statistics compilers.

Capacity Building

TFITS coordinates training and capacity-building initiatives, especially in developing countries, to ensure higher efficiency of achieving a better harmonization of country data compilation and dissemination practices.

Newsletter

The Newsletter of the Interagency Task Force on Statistics of International Trade in Services (TFSITS) is a joint publication of the members of the task force. The newsletter is prepared by the International Trade in Services Section of UNSD/DESA and is issued once a year.

The newsletter does not necessarily express the official position of any of the members nor is it an official document of the United Nations.

About

In March 2014 at the joint meeting of the Task Force on International Merchandise Trade Statistics (TFIMTS) and the Task Force on Statistics of International Trade in Services (TFSITS), the proposal to merge the task forces was approved. The co-chairs of the merged Task Force on International Trade Statistics (TFITS) are OECD and WTO. The TFITS will meet once a year.

TFITS was established to improve international cooperation in the collection, processing and dissemination of trade statistics; promote the development of international standards; improve the availability, quality and comparability of international trade statistics; promote the development of national statistical systems that enable the provision of the best quality estimates of trade in value added and the promotion of integrated accounting frameworks that give greater emphasis to firms engaged in global value chains; coordinate the work on capacity building (joint seminars/workshops, e-learning, etc.); and to act as a forum to identify new conceptual and data compilation issues. To learn more about the mandate of the TFITS, please read the draft

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PHOTO ATTRIBUTION:

"Staatsrat (round table)" by Jonas K - Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.