QUALITY ASPECTS WHEN MODERNIZING INTRASTAT

Ales CapekEurostat

HISTORY

INTRASTAT was a simplification and was further simplified

…but still perceived burdensome – more than 500 000 EU companies are reporting

Political framework: Lisbon process, Commission Communication on the Reduction of the response burden, simplification and priority setting in the field of Community statistics, Ecofin Councils

INTRASTAT became priority for reduction of statistical response burden

THE SOLUTION

2 main simplification options: single flow and decrease in trade coverage

3 criteria: - potential for burden reduction

- impact on timeliness

- impact on quality Trade coverage as short term solution Single flow to be further studied New Intrastat legislation adopted by the Commission

IMPACT ON QUALITY

How is the commodity structure of trade affected by simplification?

Only approximate comparison of the two options possible

Threshold option: how many commodity codes disappear or their volume of trade is reduced

Single flow: how many commodity codes disappear, new codes are created or the value within remaining codes is affected

RESULTS – THRESHOLD OPTION

Up to trade coverage of 95 % majority of codes lose less than 5 % of initial value

At coverage of 90 % majority of codes strongly affected losing at least 10 % of initial value

Codes losing more than 50 % of initial value less important in terms of trade value

RESULTS – SINGLE FLOW

The impact in terms of values of lost codes, new codes and changed values within remaining codes reaches double digit figures for most Member States

The impact is bigger in general for small Member States The impact is bigger in case of single flow based on

arrivals. In some Member States the impact on trade values reaches tripple digit figures

SURVEY OF THE USERS AND SUPPLIERS OF THE STATISTICS

■ USERS▪ 1885 replies from questionnaire

19 NSIs + Eurostat

+ 100 telephone interviews

with ‘key users’

36 % - companies

17 % - public administration

10 % - business federations

9 % - academic

6 % - EU institution

■ PSIs

▪ 3350 replies from questionnaire

* 14 Member States

39 % - wholesale/retail trade

37 % - manufacturing, construction, mining

• Questionnaires were accessible on a web-server from May 25th - August 8th

• Respondents were invited by Eurostat and/or NSIs to participate in the survey directly by email or by “pop-ups”.

Q3. From the following sources of statistics, please indicate which you use for trade statistics. Please select as many answers as apply

58%

58%

43%

29%

23%

15%

20%

6%

5%

11%

16%

3%

Eurostat database - Comext

Extraction from national statisticaldatabases

Publications from national statisticaloffices (electronic or hard copy)

International Organizations other thanEuropean Commission

Eurostat publications (electronic or hardcopy, predefined tables)

Press and other media

Eurostat database - New Cronos

Private companies (statistics providers)

European Commission services other thanEurostat

Eurostat DVD

Other

Don't know

USERS - SOURCES OF TRADE DATA

Q5. For what purpose or purposes does your organisation

use trade data? Please select as many answers as apply.

50%

48%

34%

18%

17%

2%

7%

For developing business strategies(market research, market

segmentation, pricing)

For macroeconomic analysis

For dissemination of statistics

For academic research

For political decision making

Other

Don't know

USERS - PURPOSES OF TRADE DATA USE

USERS - AREAS AND TRADE FLOWS

Relevance of reported areas

- Individual EU MS 90 %

- EU as a whole 87 %- Euro area 54

%

Relevance of trade flows

- Imports from non EU 86 %- Exports to non EU 83 %- Imports from EU to EU 81 %- Exports from EU to EU 79 %

Q13. Based on your experience, please indicate your overall level of satisfaction with the trade statistics you are currently using.

Very satisfied18%

Not very satisfied

13%

Fairly satisfied67%

Not at all satisfied

1%

Don't know1%

USERS - OVERALL SATISFACTION

USERS - INTEREST IN ADDITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

Trade acc. to sector of activity of the trader (NACE) 60 % Intragroup trade 51

% Trade acc. to size of trader 52 % Trade acc. to product by activity 53

% Goods for processing 49 %

USERS - ASSESSMENT OF PROPOSED REFORMS

47% 7%

12% 25%

12%

12%

12%36%

43%

11%

8%

9%

14% 28%

25%I ncreasing the

exemptionthreshold

A more aggregatedcommodity

classification

Single-flow system

Will have a NEGATIVE impact on trade statistics you use

Will not impact trade statistics you use

Will have a POSITIVE impact on trade statistics you use

You cannot assess the consequences of the measure

Don't Know

Q18 Companies in the European Union have to report their trade regularly using the INTRASTAT system. Some measures are currently being evaluated with a view to lightening the administrative burden for companies reporting on 'Intra EU trade'. For each of the measures below, please indicate how you assess its potential impact on the trade statistics you use for your work.

Q8. From the following, please indicate which mode you use the most to submit declaration forms?

Don't know \ no answer

1%

Other5%

Other electronic

applications (offline tools)

22%

Paper declaration

6%

Internet Web Form66%

PROVIDERS - MODE OF SUBMISSION OF DATA

PROVIDERS - REPORTING BURDEN

Intrastat forms are easy to fill in 80 % Time spent on filling in and submitting forms is

reasonable 74 %

Q13. For each of the following elements of your reporting to I ntrastat, please

indicate to what extent you find it easy or difficult

89%

65%

57%

25%

31%

34%

28%

35%

53%

5%

5%

5%

8%

15%

21%

7%

70%

75%

65%

40%

45%

58%

86%

20%

9%

15%

6%

10%

6%

15%

Determining the partnercountry

Determination of thevalue

Providing the Nature ofTransaction Codes

The data entry interface

Average across allelements

Respecting thetransmission deadline

Providing the quantitynet mass

Providingsupplementary quantity

unit

Managing different rulesbetween VAT and

I ntrastat

Classifying productsaccording to the

combined Nomenclature

Easy (NET)

Difficult (NET)

Don't know

PROVIDERS - EASE/DIFFICULTY OF VARIOUS REPORTING ELEMENTS

SUMMARY

The quality aspects played important role when deciding about how to simplify Intrastat

Due to the asymmetries in mirror trade flows the impact of the single flow on the quality of data would be more significant compared with the threshold option

The survey of the users and providers of statistical data served as an additional source of information

The survey has shown general satisfaction with statistics on intra-community trade