1. Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 1 TRADE DATA PROCESSING IN CENTRAL AFRICA Jules Rommel TOUKA Statisticien économiste

2. Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 2 OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION Introduction 1. Coverage 2. Data collection system 3. Data processing 4. Data uses and dissemination 5. Challenges

3. INTRODUCTION The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) has the mandate from ils member states (Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo DR, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tomé) to harmonize the production of statistics in the region. In regard of this aim, the Secretary general has set up an Statistic and economic forecast Unit. The first step of the statistic Unit road map concern the intertional trade statistic which are identified as a main source of the weak level of trade information to allow exhanges toward countries of Central Africal. The second reason of the importance of statistics for ECCAS is to follow up regional integration tools like financial contribution of members (Head of states have decided to institute a mechanism to finance the integration process in Central Africa; the tax called Contribution Communautaire d’Intégration (CCI) is 0,4% of imports from non member countries. Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 3

4. 4 1. COVERAGE Trade system : According to UN recommandation, we use the general or total trade system system which include marchendises from free zone, and other custums regime. We advice our correspondant to do so. Type of data Type of flows (Imports, exports in value and, quantity or volume, ) Countries partners Periodicity : monthly, annualy We cover trade flow of all member countries, with all partners in the world.

5. 2. Data collection Source of data: customs administrations Institutionnal arrangement: ECCAS has negociated an agreement with customs administration in all members countries to designate a correspondant (in charge of trade statistics) who provide data twice by year. To help correspondant to collect these data in the first three years of this initiative, ECCAS has signed a contract with correspondants Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 5

6. 2. DATA COLLECTION (cont) The format of data include Flow Product code (HS 6 or more digits) Product label Country code (ISO) Country designation Value in local currency Volume (Kg, liter, …) Unit Period: month, year Metadata: custem system, tmode of transport, … For those countries where ther were no data (Equatorial Guinea, DRC), or where data misses or were not reliable or some products, we use mirror data from Comtrade (UNSD) or Trade Map (ITC) lmsse Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 6

7. 3. DATA PROCESSING Verification: Flow to eliminate re imports or re imports, flows toward the same country Product code (version of HS) Value and volume reported for some important products to the country Transformation Harmonisation and conversion of data in HS 2007 at 6 digits Conversion in SITC-rev3 (UN conversion tables are used for all conversions) Harmonisation of value (in export, the statistic value differ from the custom value) Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 7

8. 3. DATA PROCESSING (cont’l) Compilation, production of tables ECCAS uses an application developped in Microsoft Access to compile data and produce tables Statistics are avilable from 2005 to 2010 including breakdowns of exports and imports by partner and product, merchandise trade indicators Verification are done with data from others sources An annual meeting is organize to allow correspondants to validate data Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 8

9. 3. DATA PROCESSING (cont’l) For intra trade We compare exports and imports and admit the value if the difference is less than 10% Otherwise, we compare the volume for the detail product to look for source or difference If no explanation for the difference, we consider the imports Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 9

10. 4. DATA DISSEMINATION ECCAS statistic is used: in variuos analytical reports and publications (annual compendiul statistics, for trade policies, for trade; data are available in detail or agregate level. In trade negciation with EU To follow up of trade performance throughout trade index (price, diversification, concentration of markets, ) or indicators To follow up regional integration tools (contribution of member countris, mechanism of compensation, fund for countries with no sea access Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 10

11. 4. LIMITATION & CHALLENGES Reliabilty: data from some products (eg.oil and mineral in general), due to lack of human ressources, insuficient equipment in some custom services, differents approches to evaluate value, to register flows in some countries Compleness: missing data from some countries, from some products or partners, missing data on informal trade Coherence: in product classification, questionnaire used for declaration, methology to compile data Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 11

12. 4. LIMITATION & CHALLENGES Harmonisation of methods to collect and compile trade statistics Enchance capacity building at national and sub regional level Build a network of experts in the sub region to develop methodologies to better compile trade data statistics Study to better evaluate transborder exchanges and informal trade Develop better tools for data checking, control and verification Develop better dissemination tools Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 12

13. Expert Group Meeting on Intra-African Trade Addis-Ababa, 5-7 October 2011 13 THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION