Corrections to the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics, 2015 to 2019
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Corrections to the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS) covering 2015 to 2019 trade data.
Today, Thursday 11 November, we are publishing corrections to the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS) covering 2015 to 2019 trade data.
Following routine quality assurance and checking procedures, we will be correcting the following Non-EU and EU trade figures:
Non-EU
- 3 commodity codes for 2015 – 3 codes for non-EU imports
• 4 commodity codes for 2016 – 4 codes for non-EU imports
• 3 commodity codes for 2017 – 3 codes for non-EU imports
• 3 commodity codes for 2018 – 3 codes for non-EU imports
• 1927 commodity codes for 2019 – 2 codes for non-EU imports, 1925 codes for non-EU exports
EU
- 2 commodity codes for 2015 – 2 codes for EU imports
• 2 commodity codes for 2016 – 2 codes for EU imports
• 3 commodity codes for 2017 – 3 codes for EU imports
• 8 commodity codes for 2018 – 8 codes for EU imports
• 3 commodity codes for 2019 – 3 codes for EU imports
The corrections with the largest impacts are the 2019 non-EU exports whereby certain export Customs declarations, for goods under temporary admissions and being re-exported from customs warehouses, were erroneously included in the OTS.
This affects UK export data covering March 2019 to December 2019.The corrections mainly affect UK exports to the USA, Switzerland, and Hong Kong of the following HS2 chapters:
- 97 - Works of art, collectors' pieces and antiques
- 71 - Natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals, metals clad with precious metal, and articles thereof; imitation jewellery; coin
- 84 - Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof
The correction revises the monthly non-EU trade figures downwards, by less than 5% in most months, with a maximum downward revision of approximately 7%.
Scale of the revisions: the revisions to 2019 reduce the total non-EU export trade by less than 4% and a minimal increase to the EU import trade. All other amendments are negligible at total trade level.
These corrections have been released today in conjunction with the September 2021 Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics. They are explained in the following documents:
- A summary and explanation of these corrections.
- The detail of changes at an annual level.
These corrections are included in the interactive tables. Corrections to the Regional Trade in Goods Statistics (2015 to 2019) and UK Trade in Goods by Business Characteristics (2015 to 2019) will be made within the next releases.