| dc.description.abstract | The Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) compiles statistics on the
external trade of the Community and trade between Member States. The basic data are
collected, processed and forwarded regularly by the Member States.
These statistics form the basis for a large number of Eurostat productions catering for various
requirements of the Community institutions and of outside users. The uses to which they are
put range from the detailed level needed to conduct multilateral and bilateral negotiations
under the common commercial policy to the more aggregated level required for the purposes
of economic forecasts and analyses. Statistics on external trade constitute the cornerstone of
sectoral or overall analyses and must therefore be tailored to suit these applications.
Consequently, Community productions relating to external trade have over the years
branched out and become more and more diversified and the need for a user's guide has
become apparent.
On a parallel with this, the proliferation of dissemination media has led to a more widespread
and flexible use of the data available. Alongside the traditional methods of dissemination on
paper there are now microfiches, magnetic tapes and on-line data banks. These new media
necessitate improved guidance as regards access, choice and utilization and also as regards
the definitions and basic methods adopted for the compilation of these statistics.
In this guide Eurostat provides, for the first time, specific information on the data published.
Its aim is twofold:
• to provide the basic methodological information required for using Eurostat's external
trade statistics;
• to give the user guidance as to the various ways and means of obtaining the statistical ¡information he seeks.
The reader will thus find:
(lì a methodological guide;
(II) a guide to Eurostat productions;
(IIII a list of prices and useful addresses.
This brief guide in no way purports to be a handbook on external trade statistics methodology, but does none the less give some idea of the substantial and painstak. |
