This fall, the African Union Commission (AUC), in collaboration with Eurostat, published for the first time a Time Series of Annual Trade Data for the period from 2010 to 2016 in the African Trade Statistics Yearbook.
AUSTAT, the Statistics Division at the AUC, compiled data provided by the national statistics offices of Member States or other institutions responsible for the production and dissemination of trade statistics in Africa and estimated the data when it was not possible to collect data directly from Member States.
The compilation of trade aggregates for the whole of the AU is a first step towards harmonizing practices and methodologies for trade statistics across Member States. The harmonized and high-quality trade statistics will also play an important role for trade negotiations and constitute an essential source of information for balance of payments statistics, national accounts and economic studies.