Report details U.S.-China trade data differences

Report details U.S.-China trade data differences    The U.S. Commerce Department released a report Thursday highlighting the differences between official trade statistics produced by the United States and China.
   'The findings will help to inform our understanding of trade data going forward and this effort lays the foundation for further statistical cooperation between both countries,' said Rebecca Blank, commerce undersecretary, in a statement.
   The report was prepared by the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade Statistics Working Group, which includes officials from the U.S. Commerce Department's Economic and Statistics Administration and Census Bureau, and China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs. The report was signed at the 20th meeting of the JCCT in Hangzhou, China in October 2009.
   The analysis found that official Chinese data on exports to the United States are typically lower than official U.S. data on imports from China. Similarly, China reports higher imports from the United States than the United States reports that it exports to China. 'The result is that Chinese data have historically shown a much smaller trade deficit with the United States than do U.S. data,' the Commerce Department said.
   Another finding of the analysis is that while the level of discrepancies has increased with the growth in trade between the countries, the statistical discrepancy has proportionally decreased.
   Between 80 percent and 90 percent of the discrepancy in the trade numbers involves eastbound trade (China to the United States). This includes both direct trade between the countries as well as indirect trade, when goods are shipped via intermediary countries, such as Hong Kong.
   'As much as 52 percent of the discrepancy in eastbound trade data is due to discrepancies in the indirect trade data, when goods are repackaged and/or repriced,' the Commerce Department said. 'Most of the remaining discrepancy occurs in the direct trade data, when goods are sold in-transit and often repriced. This occurs most commonly with processed goods. Accounting for these and other differences in data collection and processing, the remaining eastbound trade data discrepancy is between 8 and 12 percent of total U.S. imports.'