UN / OECD JOINT SYSTEM FOR THE COLLECTION AND

PROCESSING OF INTERNATIONAL MERCHANDISE

TRADE STATISTICS

Mary Jane Holupka, United Nations Statistics Division

Conference on Data Quality for International Organizations

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Introduction

• The Joint System’s Features

– collection and sharing of detailed annual commodity-by-partner trade data

– common data-processing standards

– computer applications for use in data-processing and dissemination

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Joint System Objectives• Reduce national authorities’ response burden• Synchronize and harmonize data-processing

routines• Disseminate identical high quality detailed

international merchandise trade data

• The organizations’ databases will be coherent

and consistent • Best use will be made of scarce resources

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Background• Separate/independent data collection,

processing and publishing activities at OECD and UNSD; discrepancies appeared from time to time in published data

• Suspicions confirmed: countries sometimes sent different data to each

• Conclusion: reconciling OECD and UNSD data only possible using same data sets and processing procedures

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From the early 90s to 1998, what took so long?

• Preferences - UNSD disseminated provisional as well as final data; OECD only final data

• Treatment of confidential data

• Different country codes being used

• Conversion of commodity classifications

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Data collection: the first step

• 2001 Memorandum of Understanding– OECD will collect trade data and metadata

from its member countries

– UNSD will collect from non-OECD countries only

– OECD will share the data with UNSD

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IT Developments taking place at the same time

• A move away from mainframe to server environment – OECD chose Oracle database in 90s, then

shared this knowledge with UNSD in 2000

– In 2001, UNSD switched to SQL-Server, then shared this knowledge with OECD in 2003

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The development of the UN/OECD Joint System

• Common data-processing standards for: – country codes– trade conversion factors– classifications and correlation tables– non-standard codes– quantity units and quantity estimations– confidentiality– metadata– synchronization of databases

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The development of the UN/OECD Joint System (cont.)

• All computer applications for processing and dissemination of trade data are to be shared

• Starting point – UN Comtrade, installed by OECD and made accessible to public by mid-2006

• COPRA (Commodity Processing application) as a foundation, with the following benefits:– inter-agency standards on all details of data processing– harmonization of published international trade statistics– higher level of data quality– full accountability in the treatment of trade data– availability of a complete set of metadata

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Data Dissemination

• Both organizations will continue to keep separate international merchandise trade statistics databases, to serve their own particular needs:– storing various data in addition to those agreed in the Joint

System (e.g. historical data, memorandum items, derived data, etc.)

– developing additional analytical and presentational functionalities and controlling user access to them

– dissemination practices, including pricing of user access to the database services, entering into contracts with users

• Disclaimers to alert the user to common standards and compliance with the Data Sharing Agreement

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Joint System Diagram

OECD Distribution Center

UNSD Processing Application

UNSD Distribution Center

OECD Processing Application

Upload

Upload

OECD Disseminiation ApplicationUNSD Dissemination Application

ITC Tariff Line System

UNSD Management

System

OECD/UNSD Comtrade Processing System

OECD Management

System

FAO Trade System

ITSY

Data Exchange & Synchronization

WTO Common Data Set

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The Current Situation

• Starting with 2002 data, only OECD collects trade data from the OECD member countries, reducing the countries’ response burden

• As of 1 January 2006, the UN/OECD data-processing system has been operational, being fine-tuned. Will result in– higher quality trade statistics through an

improved data-processing system certified by UNSD and OECD

– higher quality dissemination system maintained by the combined team of UNSD and OECD IT experts

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The Current Situation (cont.)

• OECD web client being tested, when completed will have the same functionalities, look and feel as Comtrade. To “go live” by summer 2006

• Both UN and OECD logos to emphasize the inter-agency cooperation

• UN/OECD Joint System as a continuous effort– statisticians are constantly comparing notes and

finding solutions to details on data processing– IT experts are regularly crossing the Atlantic to

actively work on the data-processing system

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Plans for further cooperation

• Development of a common strategy for maintenance and dissemination of the tariff-line data

• Evaluation of the possibility of collecting, processing and disseminating trade data containing additional features – mode of transport– nature of transaction– additional partner country attributions

• Further standardization and enhancement of the metadata

• Evaluation of the experience gained for use in similar activities in statistics of international trade in services

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http://unstats.un.org/unsd/comtrade/default.aspx

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For further informationUN Comtrade, UNSD

• Vladimir Markhonko

• Ronald Jansen

• Markie Muryawan

OECD ITCS

• Andreas Lindner, Gregory Legoff

• Trevor Fletcher

• Lynda Hawe, Valerie Thielemans, etc.