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  • Regional validation workshop on International Merchandise Trade Statistics

Regional validation workshop
on International Merchandise Trade Statistics

Implementing IMTS 2010 Concepts and Definitions
Jointly organized by ACS, UNSD, and UNCTAD

  • Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
  • 15-18 May 2018

The Regional validation workshop on International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) is organized as a follow-up activity to the distance-learning course on International Merchandise Trade Statistics, delivered for the first time (to more than 130 participants from 28 countries) to contribute to enhance the knowledge and the capacity IMTS professionals, mainly from the English-speaking countries from the Caribbean region and Asia.

The main goals are to enhance statisticians' ability to apply the most recent internationally agreed recommendations on IMTS, define best possible data sources, set up adequate (or enforce existing) collection systems, and enhance statistics compilation processes. Moreover, the course would communicate the importance of quality, metadata, timely dissemination, and links to economic analysis and national policy objectives.

The workshop would guide trainees on how to better use the internationally available guidance, especially the IMTS Concepts and Definitions 2010 and the related Compilers Manual.

Specific Objectives

  1. To revise and assess the training material produced for the IMTS course
  2. To identify eventual learning gaps to adapt the training material
  3. To enhance the knowledge and the capacity of trainees through group exercises
  4. To present country activities in the area of trade statistics
  5. To report the conclusions and recommendations

Tuesday, 15 May

08:00 - 09:00
Registration for participants
Morning Session
09:00 - 10:30
Opening Session
  1. Opening remarks (ACS, UNSD, UNCTAD)
  2. Adoption of provisional agenda and administrative matters
  3. Purpose and context of the workshop
  4. Overview on activities of International Organisations in the area of IMTS
10:30 - 11:00
Coffee Break

11:00 - 12:00
IMTS e-learning course
  1. Introduction to the six modules
    1. Conceptual Framework
    2. Institutional Arrangements
    3. Production and Compilation
    4. Metadata and Quality
    5. Dissemination and Analysis
    6. New Areas and Analytical Topics
12:00 - 12:45
Round table discussion: Experiences of the online training course and evaluation

12:45 - 14:15
Lunch Break

Afternoon Session
14:15 - 15:30
Conceptual Framework
  1. Recommendations in IMTS 2010 and related manuals
    1. Scope and Time of Recording
    2. Trade System
    3. Commodity Classifications
    4. Valuation
    5. Quantity Measurement
    6. Partner Country
    7. Mode of Transport
15:30 - 14:00
Coffee Break

16:00 - 17:30
Round table discussion: Experiences with implementing IMTS 2010 - sharing best practices

Wednesday, 16 May

Morning Session
9:00 - 10:30
Dissemination and Analysis
  1. Best practices on data dissemination
    1. Confidentiality
    2. Revision Policy
    3. Dissemination System
  2. Communicating trade data to users within a context of SDG monitoring
  3. Data reconciliation and bilateral trade asymmetries
10:30 - 11:00
Coffee Break

11:00 - 12:45
  1. Data visualization to explore and analyse trade data (Examples from UN Comtrade Labs)
  2. Round Table discussion: Needs and challenges in disseminating and analysing data

12:45 - 14:15
Lunch Break


Afternoon Session

14:15 - 15:30
New Areas of Work
  1. Linking trade and business statistics
  2. Measuring cross-border e-commerce
15:30 - 16:00
Coffee Break

16:00 - 17:30
National Practices
  1. Country presentations: Present and future activities in area of trade statistics

Thursday, 17 May

Morning Session
9:00 - 10:30
Production and Compilation
  1. Export/import price indices compilation method
  2. Data sources: Customs and non-Customs data
  3. Data processing system in International Organizations
10:30 - 11:00
Coffee Break

11:00 - 12:30
  1. Presentation of the Eurotrace software suite (DBMS, Editor and the COMEXT Browser)
  2. Country presentation: Implementation of Eurotrace
  3. Round Table discussion: Need for data processing software
12:45 - 14:15
Lunch Break

14:15 - 15:30
Metadata and Quality
  1. Overview of data quality checking – validity and credibility
  2. Credibility Model – regression analysis
  3. Applying data verification in practice

15:30 - 16:00
Coffee Break

16:00 - 17:30
  1. Magnitude of failure Indicator
  2. Practical Exercise: Generating credibility parameters from a sample of candles data using Microsoft excel and Access

Friday, 18 May

Morning Session
9:00 - 10:30
Institutional Arrangements
  1. The legal framework and institutional coordination as pillars of efficient national statistical systems
  2. Institutional Arrangements among agencies compiling IMTS
    1. Legal acts regulating institutional arrangements
    2. Characteristics of effective institutional arrangements
10:30 - 11:00
Coffee Break

11:00 - 12:00
  1. Group Exercise: Establishing Effective Institutional Arrangement between Customs and the National Statistical Office/Central Bank

12:00 - 13:00
Wrap-up Session: Lessons learned for future IMTS training
  • Conclusion of the workshop
  • Evaluation of the workshop and any other business

13:00 - 14:30
Lunch Break

14:30 - 15:45
Closing ceremony

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