** NOTICE **

Improvements in Monthly Trade Data

The Census Bureau has recently investigated the problem of late reporting 
of exports.  Late reporting means that initial monthly estimates of 
exports must be revised a month later when the Bureau can more accurately 
assign the late-reported exports to the month in which they actually
occurred.  The late-reported exports, called "carry-over" by the Bureau, 
are a main source of the monthly revisions in the trade data.

Beginning this month, Census is changing the methods it uses to calculate 
trade flows in a way that makes the assignment of exports by month more 
accurate.  The new procedure involves a change in the way the Bureau 
processes the electronic export transactions filed by companies in the 
Bureau's Automated Export Reporting Program.  This change will enable the 
Bureau to improve data collection from a small number of exporters who 
have chronically filed late reports.

The effect of this methodological change was to increase the revised total 
for exports in the month of February.  The dollar effect of this change 
was equal to about $750 million.  In addition, this month the Bureau 
received a higher than usual number of late documents from the U.S. 
Customs Service.  Customs has notified their ports about this problem and 
emphasized the importance of transmitting export documents to Census on 
time.

The February export data were also revised upward because of late receipt 
of documents from the U.S. Customs Service.  This had the effect of 
increasing February exports by an additional $350 million.

In combination, the two steps should lead to smaller monthly revisions in 
future trade data.

SOURCE: Report FT900 (CB-96-77), Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade
        Division, MARCH 1996.  For more information, contact Haydn R. 
        Mearkle (301-457-2246) or Richard M. Preuss (301-457-2311), 
        Foreign Trade Division.