19.19. Confidential data. Some countries consider certain commodity and partner information as confidential owing to security concerns or other considerations. Examples include information on imports of military or other sensitive goods and information on exports of oil and gas. IMTS 2010 (para. 10.3) recommends that data considered confidential be included at the next-higher level of commodity or partner detail that ensures the required confidentiality. Confidential trade flows are within the scope of the international merchandise trade statistics and the application of confidentiality should not result in under-coverage (see chaps. X and XXVI for further details and good practices).
19.20. Omission of data. There are examples where information on trade transactions that are not covered by regular customs recording is omitted from merchandise trade statistics, although information is provided and included for balance-of-payments statistics. It might be the case that the available information does not allow the inclusion in merchandise trade statistics at the detailed commodity and partner data levels. However, in line with the general guideline on the scope of IMTS, this trade should be included at the total level in order that full coverage may be provided.