Trade volumes of less than five units, as reported by the exporting partner, have been excluded from the table as these may be personal effects and could be exempt from import permit requirements, while an exporter-reported quantity of zero could be the result of the exporter not submitting an annual report.  Cases where importers’- and exporters’-reported quantities differed by less than 25% were not considered discrepancies of note, and were therefore also excluded.

In order to enable better matching of shipments between trading partners, purpose and source codes were not taken into account in the comparative tabulation. Purpose codes are often reported using different, but equally valid, codes. Some inconsistencies are also apparent in reporting of source codes, for example in the reporting of pre-Convention items.

Many of the entries may be explained by exporters reporting on issued permits which are then not used or only partly utilised, or the transaction taking place in the subsequent calendar year and being reported as such by the importer. When comments were received from Member States providing additional information on specific discrepancies (e.g. confirming that the trade did not actually take place in 2010), these transactions have been excluded.