Forest Products Trade Flow Discrepancies--Unintentional and International Errors

Forest products trade flow data consists of two observations for each trade flow. The first observation is made by an exporting country A(concerning exports to importing country B) and the second observation is made by the importing country B(concerning imports from the previously mentioned, exporting country, A). The existence of these two different observations regarding the same trade flow allows for some rather than interesting investigations. Looking at trade flow statistics one often sees that reports on opposite ends of the same trade flow are contradictory. In this paper a number of possible explanations will be given. Furthermore, some suggestions will be given that might help to distinguish between unintentional and intentional data reporting faults, because the latter can be an indication for the occurrence of illegal activities.