| dc.description.abstract | Since 1 January 1978, the provisions of Council Regulation
(EEC) No 1736/75 on the external trade statistics of the
Community and statistics of trade between Member States
have been implemented by all Community countries. On this
date therefore, EU ROSTAT amended its procedures and now
publishes ail external trade statistics in accordance with
uniform principles (with the exception of a few special
movements of goods such as those for bunker supplies and
ships' stores, returned consignments, joint production, postal
consignments, mixed consignments, etc., which have not yet
been standardized). The harmonization of concepts and
definitions leads inevitably to a change in the information
content of the statistics and thus to a certain extent to a break
in the homogeneity of the time series — a state of affairs to be
noted, particularly with regard to analyses covering long
periods. |
