Intrastat

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Intrastat[1] is the system for collecting statistics on the trade in goods between countries of the European Union (EU). It began operation on 1 January 1993, when it replaced customs declarations as the source of trade statistics within the EU. The requirements of Intrastat are similar in all member states of the EU.

[edit] Motivation

Trade statistics are an essential part of a country's balance of payments account and are regarded as an important economic indicator of the performance of the UK; export data in particular can be used as an indicator of the state of a country's manufacturing industries as a whole. Please refer UK Customs Policy and Guide Lines.

The statistics are used by government departments to help set overall trade policy and generate initiatives on new trade areas. The volume of goods moving is also assessed to allow the planning of future transport infrastructure needs.

The commercial world uses the statistics to assess markets within the country (e.g. to gauge how imports are penetrating the market) and externally (e.g. to establish new markets for their goods)

In addition, the statistics are passed on to European and International bodies such as Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Communities), the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.

Intrastat data forms an integral part of these statistics and therefore it is important that the data submitted is of a high quality. The supply of services is excluded from Intrastat.

Specifically concerning the commodity codes according to the Combined Nomenclature (CN), it needs to be acknowledged that although the CN is revised annually and published as a Commission Regulation in the EU Official Journal in October of the preceding year, the Member States have the right to collect more detailed information such as a more detailed commodity code by adding an additional digit to the end of the EU level 8 digit CN code (Article 9(2) of regulation 638/2004).

Latest official CN regulation for CN2008: List of Intrastat Codes

Unofficial, legally non-binding Intrastat database (DB) versions of CN2008: List of Intrastat Codes

Unofficial, legally non-binding transposition tables from one year to another, like CN2007-CN2008: Tables