D. Legal acts regulating institutional arrangements
1.12. Effective institutional arrangements. The establishment and maintenance of effective institutional arrangements among governmental agencies relevant to international merchandise trade statistics can be greatly facilitated if the national law contains clear provisions with respect to the roles, rights and responsibilities of those agencies as well as the mechanisms of their cooperation (see IMTS 2010, para. 8.16). If such provisions and mechanism of cooperation are lacking or are not sufficiently detailed, then it might be more difficult, and time consuming, to establish effective institutional arrangements.
1.13. In this context, it is good practice for compilers to actively participate, whenever appropriate, in the necessary modifications to national legislation or relevant administrative regulations in order to establish a solid foundation for enhancing the quality and timeliness of trade statistics (see IMTS, para. 8.14). It is good practice for the national laws and regulations to designate only one governmental agency as responsible for the dissemination of official trade statistics and to define the rights and responsibilities of all agencies involved in the collection, processing and dissemination of trade statistics, so that those agencies will be in a better position to establish the necessary institutional arrangements detailing their involvement in the statistical process. For instance, if adequate legal provisions are in place, the responsible agency can establish, faster and more efficiently, a working arrangement with the organizations keeping records relevant to international merchandise trade statistics (e.g., records of imports and exports of electrical energy and of pipeline shipments of natural gas and crude oil, maintained by specialized governmental agencies, etc.). See chapter V for further discussion of institutional arrangements.