Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina - BHAS

G5: International trade in goods

2920 Luxembourg

BiH international trade in goods statistics describes the trade in goods between Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries. It is based on data from customs declarations (exporter/importer has to submit a declaration to Customs when exporting and importing goods). Export and import by products and partner countries are disseminated.

- Customs Tariff of Bosnia and Herzegovina

- Combined Nomenclature (CN)

- Harmonized System (HS)

- Standard International Trade Classification (SITC rev.4)

- Statistical classification of economic activities in the EU (NACE rev.2)

- Classification of Products by Activity (CPA 2008)

- Main Industrial Groupings (MIG 2009)

Customs Tariff of BiH is the national classification of products used for customs and statistical purposes. It comprises ten digit codes and is in line with international classifications CN and HS.

Trade in goods of primary and secondary sectors.

- Flow (Export and import are determined using BiH customs procedure codes. They are generally in line with EU customs procedure codes with few exceptions).

- Reference date (It is the date of acceptance of customs declaration and approximates border crossing moment as reference point).

- Partner country (Geonomenclature 2013 codes are used. Partner country in the case of export is the country of the last known destination. Country of origin of goods is taken as importing country, but, in the case of import after outward processing and import of goods from chapter 97 of Customs Tariff of BiH, as well as incorrect codes or empty boxes for the country of origin in the Customs database, the country of consignment is taken as importing country. The country of origin of goods is the country in which goods were manufactured, and the country of consignment is the country from which the goods were dispatched to the importing country.

- Product code (defined in Customs Tariff of BiH which is in line with CN).

- Value (Expressed in convertible marks-national currency, euros and US dollars. The statistical value of exported and imported goods is determined at the national border. In the case of export, FOB-type values are used, meaning that the statistical value of goods comprises invoiced value agreed between buyer and seller, as well as the costs of transport and insurance from a destination in BiH to the BiH border crossing. In the case of import, CIF-type values are used, meaning that the statistical value of imported goods comprises contracted price of goods agreed between buyer and seller and the costs of international freight and insurance to the BiH border crossing.

- Net mass (kilograms).

- Supplementary quantity unit and supplementary quantity (as determined in Customs Tariff of BiH).

- Statistical procedure (Determined using conversion table between customs procedure codes and statistical procedure codes). The table was created by Eurostat.

Statistical unit in the BiH international trade in goods statistics is any delivery of goods, exported or imported.

Special trade system (relaxed definition) is used. It means that BiH international trade in goods statistics comprises all the transactions related to normal export and import (goods cleared for free circulation) as well as goods for processing. The following transactions are excluded from statistics:

- Goods in simple transit: The reporting on operations in BiH is excluded when the goods travel directly through BiH or stop for reasons only related to its transport.

- Temporary trade: Goods moving abroad or entering BiH for a well-defined duration and without undergoing any change except normal depreciation (e.g. hire, operational leasing) are excluded.

- Particular trade that is not subject of a commercial transaction (e.g. advertisement material, commercial samples).

- Monetary gold.

- Repairs.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The data are disseminated on a monthly basis from 2005 onwards. 

The base year for production of export and import unit value indices is 2010.

Statistical value is expressed in convertible marks (national currency), euros and US dollars.

Net mass is expressed in kilograms.

Supplementary quantity is expressed according to corresponding supplementary quantity unit from Customs Tariff of BiH.

The reference period indicates the calendar year and month when the declaration is assessed and accepted by Customs.

Three relevant dates are used: the declaration date, the registration date and the assessment date. The declaration date represents the date when the declaration was submitted (part of SAD box 54). The registration date represents the date when the declaration was registered i.e. became an official document recorded on computer (part of SAD box A). The assessment date represents the date when the declaration was assessed and accepted by the Customs (part of SAD box B).

The assessment date is used for statistical purposes. It is a good approximation of the time of crossing the border of the economic territory and conforms to international recommendations.

Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the institution responsible for production and dissemination of BiH international trade in goods statistics.

Statistical activities of the Agency for Statistics of BiH are regulated by the Law on Statistics of BiH („Official Gazette of BiH“, No 26/04 and 42/04). 

Indirect Taxation Authority (Customs) is the institution responsible for collection and controls of Single Administrative Documents-customs declarations.

Activities of the Indirect Taxation Authority (Customs) are regulated by the Law on Customs Policy of BiH („Official Gazette of BiH“, No 57/04, 51/06, 93/08, 54/10 and 76/11).

The Law on Customs Policy is generally compatible with the most important features of the EU Customs Code, in respect of the introduction and use of the Single Administrative Document, the Combined Nomenclature and the country classification.

Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Indirect Taxation Authority (Customs) signed a Protocol on Cooperation on 28 April 2005 and revised it on 15 February 2008. The Protocol defines a framework of cooperation between the parties involved (provision of data, deadlines, data quality and controls etc.).

The Law on Statistics of BiH regulates data confidentiality (Article 26, Paragraph 1 “Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina must not be disseminated to users, if they contain or reveal confidential data. Aggregates shall comprise at least three units and the share of one unit in an aggregate must not exceed 85% of the total”; Article 26, Paragraph 2 “Derogation from paragraph 1 refers to information about the economic situation collected from enterprises and other economic agents, and about the environmental situation.

Such information may be disseminated even if the results do not meet the aggregate requirements set out in paragraph 1 hereof, in cases where this is determined necessary by the Agency for Statistics of BiH for ensuring significant basic information and provided that the Statistical Programme foresees the dissemination of such information”).

If possible, data are aggregated in a way that complies to the rule described in the Article 26, Paragraph 1. 

There is no release calendar for 2014.

The data for the previous month are disseminated not later than the 20^th of the following month.

Preliminary data for the previous year are disseminated not later than the 20^th of January of the following year.

Final data for the previous year are disseminated in July of the following year.

No information provided.

Monthly First Release and Yearly Thematic Bulletin are put on the website: bhas@bhas.ba. Users are informed by newsletter which contains basic figures and link to the publication on the website. The mentioned publications comprise aggregated figures. Public users have to contact the Agency for Statistics of BiH to obtain detailed figures. 

Detailed data are sent to the government organizations: Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Directorate for Economic Planning and Central Bank of BiH.

Data are sent to Eurostat in accordance to the deadline specified in the Extrastat Basic Regulation (EC) 471/2009 (not later than 40 days after the end of monthly reference period). The data are sent according to the transmission rules specified in the Eurostat’s document Doc. Coop_400 Rev.2.

Some detailed data are also sent to UNSTAT.

Monthly and yearly.

Monthly First Release comprises aggregated figures for the month in question as well as period from the beginning of the year onwards (trade in value by partner countries, SITC and NACE divisions, HS sections and statistical procedures).

Yearly Thematic Bulletin comprises aggregated figures for the year in question as well as previous years and comparisons.

There is no on-line database in BiH. Public users have to contact the Agency for Statistics of BiH to obtain detailed figures.

Micro data are not disseminated and accessible to users. There is no provision in the Law on Statistics of BiH which regulates accessibility to micro data by e.g. researchers.

BiH international trade in goods figures can be found in the yearly publication “BiH in figures”.

“BiH Statistics on the Trading of Goods - User Guide” is the main methodological document. Summary methodology is presented in Press Releases and Thematic Bulletin.

http://www.stat.gov.ba/metodoloskidokumenti/2008-md-vanj-trg-en.pdf

There are no standard quality reports. Quality indicators are described in the document “BiH Statistics on the Trading of Goods – User Guide”.

The production of BiH international trade in goods statistics is based on EU regulations and following documents: “Guidelines for the Implementation of the Intrastat and Extrastat Legislation” and “International Merchandise Trade Statistics - Concept and Definitions 2010”. The best practices of other countries are used as well.

Overall quality is at satisfying level. Generally, the objective to provide robust, reliable, relevant and timely BiH international trade in goods statistics is achieved.

The main users in BiH are government institutions:

- Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relationships of BiH (planning of customs and trade policies),

- Directorate for Economic Planning – Council of Ministers of BiH (macroeconomic analysis and economic planning),

- Central Bank of BiH (production of balance of payment statistics).

The main international users are Eurostat and UNSTAT. 

Other users are e.g. private companies (market analysis) etc.

User satisfaction surveys for BiH international trade in goods statistics are not performed. The views and opinions of the users are collected through verbal and written communication (especially government institutions). Generally, users are satisfied with BiH international trade in goods statistics.

All requested statistics and statistical variables are available, except statistics on trade by business characteristics.

The accuracy of BiH international trade in goods statistics is affected by: coverage of data collection, measurement units, data revisions, confidentiality and control procedures (validity and credibility checks). These factors are described elsewhere in the document.

As basic data consists of many detailed customs declarations each month, it is difficult to reach complete accuracy for the published statistics. The users should be aware of the margin of inaccuracies in the data used, at least concerning the most detailed level of data.

No sampling techniques are used. Full coverage – customs data.

No sampling techniques are used. Full coverage – customs data.

The data for the previous month are disseminated not later than the 20^th of the following month.

Preliminary data for the previous year are disseminated not later than the 20^th of January of the following year.

Final data for the previous year are disseminated in July of the following year.

Data are sent to Eurostat in accordance to the deadline specified in the Extrastat Basic Regulation (EC) 471/2009 (not later than 40 days after the end of monthly reference period). The data are sent according to the transmission rules specified in the Eurostat’s document Doc. Coop_400 Rev.2.

The Press Releases and Thematic Bulletins are always disseminated on time.

The data are always sent to Eurostat not later than 40 days after the end of monthly reference period.

The production of BiH international trade in goods statistics is based on EU regulations and following documents: “Guidelines for the Implementation of the Intrastat and Extrastat Legislation” and “International Merchandise Trade Statistics - Concept and Definitions 2010”.

Mirror statistics is used to compare data. Absolute discrepancy between BiH and EU data on both flows is 5-10% at the aggregated level (totals). At the detailed level of CN there can be discrepancies due to:

- Partner country definition,

- “Rotterdam effect”,

- CIF versus FOB valuation,

- Data confidentiality,

- Misclassification of goods.

BiH international trade in goods statistics is generally comparable over time since 2005. Comparability is affected by Harmonized System changes in 2007 and 2012 as well as changes in the Combined Nomenclature which occur every year.

Customs Tariffs of BiH were not fully in line with the corresponding Combined Nomenclatures in the period 2005-2007. Country classifications were not fully in line with the corresponding Geonomenclatures in the period 2005-2007. These are reasons for not putting the data for the mentioned period into Comext.

BiH international trade in goods statistics is used in the production of BiH National Accounts and BiH Balance of Payments. Still, the production of BiH National Accounts and BiH Balance of Payments follows somewhat different methods than BiH international trade in goods statistics. This can be the cause of data difference when comparing trade flows from the mentioned statistics.

BiH international trade in goods aggregated data are constructed from detailed data over countries and over different product classifications with the help of correspondence tables. This insures internal coherence.

Single Administrative Documents (customs declarations) are used by Indirect Taxation Authority (Customs) to implement BiH customs policy. Data from customs declarations are used to compile BiH international trade in goods statistics.

Agency for Statistics of BiH does not have an official paper on revision policy.

Revisions are performed yearly. It is not necessary to revise data on a monthly basis due to minor changes in monthly data.

Revisions are based on the updates of the data provided by Customs. The provisional data for the previous year become available in January of the following year. The first revision is published in January in Press Release. The final data for the previous year become available in April/May of the following year. The second revision with final figures is published in July in Thematic Bulletin.

Users are informed about revisions in the methodology part of Press Release and Thematic Bulletin.

BiH international trade in goods statistics is based on administrative data. The only source of data is the Indirect Taxation Authority (Customs) - Single Administrative Documents (customs declarations).

Indirect Taxation Authority (Customs) uses ASYCUDA for data processing.

Monthly. 

Indirect Taxation Authority (Customs) sends tables from ASYCUDA (data from Single Administrative Documents – customs declarations) to the Agency for Statistics of BiH in the form of Access database on CD. 

There are two types of statistical data checks:

- Basic (validity) controls: this means checks on the validity of data and concerns all the variables collected. A validity error is found when a record is not correct therefore it may cause processing problems, it cannot be included in the statistical analysis and so it is removed or corrected. Examples of this kind of errors are incorrect or missing codes, missing values in the customs declarations, character data in numeric field and vice versa, etc.

- Complex (credibility) controls: this means checks on the accuracy of data and assessment of possible errors associated with the data. Some data passing the previous validity checks can still be incorrect. Residual errors can be pointed out by looking for variable inconsistencies (e.g. unit value of a product should not fall outside the predefined range).

Statistical data checks are of utmost importance for determining and improving data accuracy.

The compilation of BiH international trade in goods statistics is based on international recommendations regarding concepts, definitions and production of necessary indicators. Statistical data checks are performed and data errors are corrected. 

There are no data adjustments (e.g. seasonal adjustments etc.).  

N.A.