1. Member States shall compile for each monthly reference period statistics on imports and exports of goods expressed in value and quantity by:
goods code;
importing/exporting Member States;
partner countries;
statistical procedure;
nature of the transaction;
preferential treatment on import;
mode of transport.
Implementing provisions for compiling the statistics may be determined by the Commission in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 11(2).
2. Member States shall compile annual statistics on trade by business characteristics, namely the economic activity carried out by the enterprise according to the section or two-digit level of the common statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE) and size-class measured in terms of number of employees. The statistics shall be compiled by linking data on business characteristics recorded according to Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 with the data recorded according to Article 5(1) of this Regulation on imports and exports. To this end, national customs authorities shall provide the relevant traders′ identification number to national statistical authorities. The measures designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, by supplementing it, relating to the linking of the data and these statistics to be compiled, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 11(3).
3. Every two years Member States shall compile statistics on trade broken down by invoicing currency. Member States shall compile the statistics using a representative sample of records on imports and exports from customs declarations which contain the data on the invoicing currency. If the invoicing currency for exports is not available on the customs declaration, a survey shall be carried out to collect the required data. The measures designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia by supplementing it, relating to the characteristics of the sample, the reporting period and the level of aggregation for partner countries, goods and currencies, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 11(3).
4. The compilation by Member States of additional statistics for national purposes may be determined where the data are available on the customs declaration.
5. Member States shall not be obliged to compile and transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) external trade statistics on statistical data which, according to the Customs Code or to national instructions, are not yet recorded nor can be straightforwardly deduced from other data on the customs declaration lodged at their customs authorities. The transmission of the following data is therefore optional for Member States:
on import, the Member State of destination;
on export, the Member State of actual export;
the nature of the transaction.