
REGULATION (EC) No 471/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 6 May 2009 on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 (Text with EEA relevance) 

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty,
Whereas:

(1) The statistical information on Member States′ trade flows with non-member countries is of essential importance for the Community’s economic and trade policies and for analysing market developments for individual goods. The transparency of the statistical system should be improved to enable it to react to the changing administrative environment and to satisfy new user requirements. Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 of 22 May 1995 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods by the Community and its Member States with non-member countries should therefore be replaced by a new Regulation in conformity with the requirements set out in Article 285(2) of the Treaty.

(2) External trade statistics are based on data obtained from customs declarations, as provided for in Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code (hereinafter referred to as the Customs Code). Progress in European integration and the resulting changes in customs clearance, including single authorisations for the use of the simplified declaration or the local clearance procedure, as well as centralised clearance, which will emanate from the current process of modernisation of the Customs Code as laid down in Regulation (EC) No 450/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 laying down the Community Customs Code (Modernised Customs Code) (hereinafter referred to as the Modernised Customs Code) warrant a number of changes. In particular, they make it necessary to adjust the way external trade statistics are compiled, to reconsider the concept of the importing or exporting Member State, and to define more precisely the data source for compiling Community statistics.

(3) Simplifications of customs formalities and controls under the Modernised Customs Code can lead to customs declarations not being available. In order to keep the compilation of external trade statistics complete, measures should be adopted which ensure that those economic operators who benefit from the simplification provide statistical data.

(4) Decision No 70/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2008 on a paperless environment for customs and trade will set up an electronic customs system for the exchange of data contained in customs declarations. In order to record the physical trade flow of goods between Member States and non-member countries and to ensure that data on imports and exports is available in the Member State concerned, arrangements between customs and statistical authorities are necessary and should be specified. This includes rules on the exchange of data between Member States′ administrations. This data exchange system should benefit as far as possible from the infrastructure established by the customs authorities.

(5) In order to allocate Community exports and imports to a given Member State, it is necessary to compile data on the ‘Member State of destination’, for imports, and the ‘Member State of actual export’, for exports. In the medium term, those Member States should become the importing and the exporting Member State for external trade statistics purposes.

(6) For the purposes of this Regulation, goods for external trade purposes should be classified in accordance with the Combined Nomenclature established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (hereinafter referred to as the Combined Nomenclature).

(7) To meet the needs of the European Central Bank and of the Commission for information on the share of the euro in international trade in goods, the invoicing currency of exports and imports should be reported at an aggregated level.

(8) For the purposes of trade negotiations and internal market management, the Commission should be provided with detailed information on the preferential treatment of goods imported into the Community.

(9) External trade statistics provide data for the compilation of balance of payments and national accounts. The characteristics which make it possible to adapt them to balance of payments purposes should become part of the mandatory and standard data set.

(10) Member States’ statistics on customs warehouses and free zones are not the subject of harmonised provisions. However, the compilation for national purposes of these statistics remains optional.

(11) Member States should provide Eurostat with annual aggregated data on trade broken down by business characteristics, one of the uses of which is to facilitate the analysis of how European companies operate in the context of globalisation. The link between business and trade statistics is established by merging data on the importer and the exporter available on the customs declaration with data requested by Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purposes.

(12) Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics provides a reference framework for the provisions laid down in this Regulation. However, the very detailed level of information on trade in goods requires specific confidentiality rules if these statistics are to be relevant.

(13) The transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality is governed by the rules set out in Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 and in Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990 on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities. Measures which are taken in accordance with those Regulations ensure the physical and logical protection of confidential data and ensure that no unlawful disclosure and non-statistical use occur when Community statistics are produced and disseminated.

(14) In the production and dissemination of Community statistics under this Regulation, the national and Community statistical authorities should take account of the principles set out in the European Statistics Code of Practice, which was adopted by the Statistical Programme Committee on 24 February 2005 and appended to the Recommendation of the Commission of 25 May 2005 on the independence, integrity and accountability of the national and Community statistical authorities.

(15) Specific provisions should be formulated to remain in force until such time as changes in customs legislation result in additional data on the customs declaration and until Community legislation requires the electronic exchange of customs data.

(16) Since the objective of this Regulation, namely establishing the common framework for the systematic production of Community external trade statistics, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale and effects of the action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(17) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission.

(18) In particular, the Commission should be empowered to adapt the list of customs procedures or customs-approved treatment or use which determine an export or import for external trade statistics; to adopt different or specific rules for goods or movements which, for methodological reasons, call for specific provisions; to adapt the list of goods and movements excluded from external trade statistics; to specify the data sources other than the customs declaration for records on imports and exports of specific goods or movements; to specify the statistical data, including the codes to be used; to establish requirements for data related to specific goods or movements; to establish requirements on the compilation of statistics; to specify the characteristics of samples; to establish the reporting period and the level of aggregation for partner countries, goods and currencies; and also to adapt the deadline for transmitting statistics, content, coverage and revision conditions for statistics already transmitted; and to establish the deadline for transmitting statistics on trade by business characteristics and statistics on trade broken down by invoicing currency. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Subject matter
Article 1 
This Regulation establishes a... framework for the systematic production of ... statistics relating to trade in goods with non-member  States (hereinafter referred to as external trade statistics).
Definitions
Article 2 
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

((a)) ‘goods’ means all movable property, including electricity;
((b)) ‘statistical territory of the Community’ means the United Kingdom;
((c)) ...
((d)) ‘customs authorities’ means ‘the Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs’;
((e)) ‘customs declaration’ means the ‘customs declaration’  for the purposes of the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018, Schedule 1;
((f)) ‘decision by customs’ means any official act by customs authorities relating to accepted customs declarations and having legal effect on one or more persons.
Scope
Article 3 

1. External trade statistics shall record imports and exports of goods , except from or to the Channel Islands.An export  shall be recorded by  the Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs  in the event that goods leave the statistical territory of the Community
(a) in accordance with one of the following customs procedures laid down in  or under the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018:
— export , including under a transit procedure;
— outward processing;
(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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(d) in application of  the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018, Schedule 2, Parts 4 and 7  to discharge an inward processing procedure.An import shall be recorded by  the Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs  in the event that goods enter the statistical territory of the Community in accordance with one of the following customs procedures laid                            down in or under the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018:
(a) release for free circulation including                            use
                        ;
(b) inward processing.
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3. For methodological reasons, certain goods or movements call for specific provisions. This concerns industrial plants, vessels and aircraft, sea products, goods delivered to vessels and aircraft, staggered consignments, military goods, goods to or from offshore installations, spacecraft, electricity and gas and waste products (hereinafter referred to as specific goods or movements)....
4. For methodological reasons, certain goods or movements shall be excluded from external trade statistics. This concerns monetary gold and means of payment which are legal tender; goods the intended use of which is diplomatic or similar nature; movements of goods between the ...United Kingdom  and                            its national  armed forces stationed abroad as well as certain goods acquired and disposed of by foreign armed forces; particular goods which are not the subject of a commercial transaction; movements of satellite launchers before their launching; goods for and after repair; goods for or following temporary use; goods used as carriers of customised information and downloaded information; and goods declared orally to customs authorities which either are of a commercial nature, provided that their value does not exceed the statistical threshold of £873 in value or 1 000 kg in net mass, or are of a non-commercial nature....
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Data source
Article 4 

1. The data source for records on the imports and exports of goods referred to in Article 3(1) shall be the customs declaration, including possible amendments or changes to statistical data resulting from decisions by customs pertaining to it.
2. Where the ... simplification of customs formalities and controls pursuant to  the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018  results in records on the imports and exports of goods not being available at customs authorities, the economic operator , if required to make a supplementary declaration pursuant to the Statistics of Trade (Customs and Excise) Regulations 1992,
                          to whom the simplification was granted shall provide the statistical data defined in Article 5 of this Regulationas if it is information that must be provided under regulation 4(1) to (8) of those Regulations, and regulations 4A to 13 of those Regulations apply accordingly.
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Statistical data
Article 5 

1. The Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs  shall obtain the following set of data from records on imports and exports referred to in Article 3(1):
(a) the trade flow (import, export);
(b) the monthly reference period;
(c) the statistical value of the goods at the national border of the ...  United Kingdom;
(d) the quantity expressed in net mass and in a supplementary unit if indicated on the customs declaration;
(e) the trader, being the importer/consignee on import and the exporter/consignor on export;
(f) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(g) the partner countries, that is:
((i)) on import, the country of origin and the country of consignment/dispatch;
((ii)) on export, the country of last known destination;
(h) the goods according to the Combined Nomenclature, being:
((i)) on import, the goods code of the TARIC subheading;
((ii)) on export, the goods code of the Combined Nomenclature subheading;
((iii)) and here, in Regulation (EU) No 92/2010 and in Regulation (EU) No 113/2010 references to the Combined Nomenclature, the CN, a chapter of the CN, a Combined Nomenclature subheading or chapter, a CN code, or a TARIC subheading are references to the corresponding provision in the customs tariff for the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018, Part 1;
(i) the customs procedure code to be used for determining the statistical procedure;
(j) the nature of the transaction if indicated on the customs declaration;
(k) the preferential treatment on import where granted by customs authorities;
(l) the invoicing currency if indicated on the customs declaration;
(m) the mode of transport, detailing:
((i)) the mode of transport at the frontier;
((ii)) the internal mode of transport;
((iii)) the container.
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3. Where not otherwise stated and without prejudice to customs legislation, the data shall be contained in the customs declaration.
4. For specific goods or movements as referred to in Article 3(3) and data provided in accordance with Article 4(2), limited sets of data may be required....
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Compilation of external trade statistics
Article 6 

1. The Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs shall compile for each monthly reference period statistics on imports and exports of goods expressed in value and quantity by:
(a) goods code;
(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(c) partner countries;
(d) statistical procedure;
(e) nature of the transaction;
(f) preferential treatment on import;
(g) mode of transport....
2. The Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs  shall compile annual statistics on trade by business characteristics, namely the economic activity carried out by the enterprise according to the section or two-digit level of the common statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) and size-class measured in terms of number of employees.The statistics shall be compiled by linking data on business characteristics recorded according to Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 with the data recorded according to Article 5(1) of this Regulation on imports and exports. ...
3. Every two years  the Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs  shall compile annual statistics on trade broken down by invoicing currency....
4. The compilation by  the Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs  of additional statistics for national purposes may be determined where the data are available on the customs declaration.
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Data exchange
Article 7 
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Transmission of external trade statistics to the Commission (Eurostat)
Article 8 
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Quality assessment
Article 9 
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Dissemination of external trade statistics
Article 10 
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               Exercise of the delegation
            
Article 10a 
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               Committee procedure
            
Article 11 
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Repeal
Article 12 
Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 shall be repealed with effect from 1 January 2010.
It shall continue to apply to data pertaining to reference periods before 1 January 2010.
Entry into force
Article 13 
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 1 January 2010.
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