16.38.    United Nations standard country or area codes for statistical use. Countries are encouraged (see IMTS 2010, para. 6.28) to adopt the United Nations standard country or area codes for statistical use provided on the UNSD website.[18] This website provides names of countries or areas together with the three-digit numerical codes used by UNSD for data-processing purposes and the two- and three-digit alphabetical codes assigned by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).  The website also lists and gives codes for a number of geographical regions and economic, trade and other groupings of countries or areas.  Compilers are advised to take note of this website and consider using the United Nations coding system for data-processing and reporting purposes if it is appropriate for their systems. 

16.39.    Trade with itself and trade with free zones (IMTS 2010, para. 6.29). It is possible that, in the case of reimports (imports of domestic goods that were previously recorded as exports), a country registers imports from itself as country of origin. Yet, it is neither recommended nor is it a common practice to record exports to itself as the country of last known destination, even if the return of the goods might be almost certain (e.g., after minor processing that does not change the country of origin). Countries applying the strict or relaxed definition of the special trade system may record trade (imports or exports) from and to their free zones (or premises for inward processing or customs warehouses). The recording of trade with its free zones (or premises for inward processing or customs warehouses) clearly indicates that the country does not use the general trade system. 

16.40.    Detailed partner breakdown. Countries may wish, in national publications, to group together countries for analytical purposes. However, IMTS 2010 (para. 6.30) recommends that in their databases and in reporting to regional and international organizations, countries make their data available with complete and most detailed partner breakdown.[19] This will allow both national and international users to aggregate countries into economic and geographical groupings according to their own analytical requirements and will facilitate the estimation of trade for late reporting or non-reporting countries.

 

[18] http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm.

[19] This is not applicable in cases when two (or several) countries consider themselves to be a single statistical territory (e.g., France and Monaco).