1. 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

2. CARDS Expected Results:
Exchange of regular and comparable trade statistics
First basic pillars for a free trade area have been established

3. CARDS External trade statistics project
Two phases
Phase 1 - Preparatory
Phase 2 - Main

4. CARDS Preparatory PHASE Part 1 : Part 2 :
Identification mission - country assessment
Co-ordination meeting

5. 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

6. CARDS
Co-ordination meeting
12-14th May 2003 – Luxembourg

7. 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

8. 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

9. CARDS Seminar Relation between statistics and customs Coverage
Specific movements
Valuation

10. CARDS Seminar Nomenclatures Exchange of data
Production of trade statistics
Quality of information
Mirror exercise –Statistics in Focus
Trade Indices

11. 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

12. CARDS Part 3. Data quality - mirror statistics
Mirror comparisons - Balkan figures / EU figures HS 2/4/6 digit
Reconciliation of the trade statistics

13. CARDS Part 4. Data exchange Monthly data COMEXT database
EU data on CD-ROM

14. CARDS Part 5. Committee meeting and project follow-up
Regular meetings - trade and nomenclature
Project progress and follow-up meetings

15. CARDS
End and good colleagues
celebrate successful
results