Page 418 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 1

IPS173 Tatiana Mosquera Yon et al.
an import for processing which enables compilers to identify these goods
movements and to withdraw them from the BoP of country C because there is
no change of ownership. In country A, the headquarters has to report an
import for BoP to take into account the change of ownership from country B.
If -at the end of the production process - the final product is exported to a
third country directly from C, this has to be reported in C as an export after
processing (and not as a final sale as it is often done) so that it could be again
withdrawn from the BoP of country C. Further, this export has to be reported
as a final sale of goods in country A to take into account the change of
ownership (again, outside the customs/FTS reporting scheme). To complete
the reporting, the factory in country C would also report processing fees
charged to headquarters in country A as an export of manufacturing services
on physical inputs owned by others; the headquarters in A has to report the
corresponding service import.
These in-depth analyses lead finally to coordinated reporting instructions.
They must be explained comprehensively to the members of the MNEs to
better understand the needs and the interplay of the relevant statistics. The
MNEs’ accounting, customs and excise teams usually support this work
because it is an efficient way for them to get a clearer view of what has to be
reported by each subsidiary in the countries where they operate.
The fact that the external work-stream is fed by the inter-institutional work
stream gave the experts in the local team much more legitimacy in the
discussion with the local MNEs members regarding reporting advices because
they can rely on the fact that the explanations given by the local experts are
communicated in an identical way to their sister or mother company in the
other country.
Once the conclusions were settled by the “inter-institutional” work stream,
a final meeting was organised to explain what the new reporting should be, to
decide when it could be implemented and to discuss technical aspects (IT
development, backward revisions). One MNE, willing to report efficiently, ask
French BoP to second experts to work on the changes and help them to
identify the accounting elements to include in their reporting. Support all
along the process is another key element to make the external work stream
successful.

3. Conclusions and Outlook
The increasing relevance of MNE-Groups in a globalised world and the
influences of their economic decisions on national economies must be
reflected in macroeconomic statistics like the BoP and national accounts in an
adequate way. The current concepts of these statistics, focusing on the
national territory, are questioned in various ways by users today. The basic

407 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9