CARDS Presented by Romesh Paul (Eurostat) Objectives: Improve the quality of the national data collection Convergence of statistical methodology towards “acquis communautaire” Increase confidence in official statistics
CARDS Expected Results: Exchange of regular and comparable trade statistics First basic pillars for a free trade area have been established
CARDS External trade statistics project Two phases Phase 1 - Preparatory Phase 2 - Main
CARDS Preparatory PHASE Part 1 : Part 2 : Identification mission - country assessment Co-ordination meeting
CARDS Identification missions EU expert on mission searching for input to his report Mr Hans Kristian Ostereng 03-06 October 02 : Macedonia 18-21 July 02 : Bosnia-Herzegovina 26-30 August 02 : Tirana, Albania. 01-04 October 02 : Zagreb, Croatia 14-17 October 02 : Serbia & Montenegro 19-22 November : Kosovo in line with UNSCR 1244
CARDS Co-ordination meeting 12-14th May 2003 – Luxembourg
CARDS Main PHASE Part 1 : Part 2 : Part 3 : Part 4 : Part 5 : Convergence to International standards Technical assistance Data quality - Mirror statistics Data exchange Meetings and project follow-up
CARDS Part 1. Convergence to International standards UN Guidelines: Concepts and definitions, Compilers manual EU Guideline: Acquis Communautaire, User guide, Concepts and definitions, Compilers manual
CARDS Seminar Relation between statistics and customs Coverage Specific movements Valuation
CARDS Seminar Nomenclatures Exchange of data Production of trade statistics Quality of information Mirror exercise –Statistics in Focus Trade Indices
CARDS Part 2. Technical assistance Production of trade statistics - Data capture, validation, processing, error correction and dissemination Eurotrace Windows Suite - COMEXT browser, Indices & reconciliation tools
CARDS Part 3. Data quality - mirror statistics Mirror comparisons - Balkan figures / EU figures HS 2/4/6 digit Reconciliation of the trade statistics
CARDS Part 4. Data exchange Monthly data COMEXT database EU data on CD-ROM
CARDS Part 5. Committee meeting and project follow-up Regular meetings - trade and nomenclature Project progress and follow-up meetings
CARDS End and good colleagues celebrate successful results