Regional Seminar on IMTS

Addis Ababa, 10 November 2011 (ECA) - A Regional Seminar on International Merchandise Trade Statistics will be held from 14 to 18 November 2011 at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Regional Seminar will be organized by the African Centre for Statistics (ACS) and the Regional Integration, Infrastructure and Trade Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with its partners. About twenty delegates who work in the national statistical offices and customs administrations of twelve member States will participate in the Seminar.

The main purpose of the Regional Seminar is to strengthen the capacity of African countries on the latest concepts and definitions of International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS). The Seminar will discuss international concepts, definitions and practices on IMTS, and gauge their applicability to African specificities; update the participants on the recently developed recommendations for Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS2012); introduce the participants to the software packages of EUROTRACE and ASYCUDA that are used in international trade data collection and compilation; share country experiences and apply good practices to overcome barriers. By the end, the group will come up with a concrete action plan for the development and harmonization of IMTS as one of the pillars of the Strategy for Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA).