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16.25.    The identification of the country of last known destination using customs records.  It is advised that the “country of destination”, as required on the customs declaration and recorded by customs, be used as the partner for the purposes of export statistics, provided that customs rules require exporters to identify, as far as it is known to them, the country to which goods are to be ultimately delivered.^[1^16] The country of destination may be taken as the country of last known destination if, at the time of exportation, no additional information is available regarding further movement of the goods.  It is also advised that compilers cooperate with customs in developing and disseminating to exporters clear instructions regarding the reporting of such information.  Compilers should be aware, however, that customs are not normally engaged in systematic verification of the correctness of information about the destination of most goods. The definition of partner country is to be based on its economic territory (see IMTS, para. 16.23). 

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16.28.    Verification of country of last known destination. In some cases trading partners’ imports data may be helpful in the verification of provided information and in the identification of the final destination. If specific problems are identified, it is a good practise to inform and educate the traders about the importance of the correct entry of the partner information. Also, countries might consider making adjustments to the partner information, if there is evidence that, to a large extent, a country of transit has been indicated by a declarant as the country of destination (e.g.,China, Hong Kong SAR; and theNetherlands).  The systematic and continuous use of such methods may noticeably improve the statistics.  Care should be taken to avoid double-counting and adjust for mark-ups in partner-country values.

[16] See SAD Guidelines - E17,  Box 17: Country of destination: Using the relevant Community code from Annex 38, enter inBox 17a the last country of destination of the goods to be exported as known at the time of export.