Page 116 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 4

CPS2145 Jee, Hui-Siang Brenda et al.
timeliness. However, international merchandise trade statistics has faced the
2
challenges of inconsistency that can be examined through mirror analysis and
further reconciliation study as encouraged in International Merchandised
3
Trade Statistics (IMTS), Revision 3, paragraph 9.18 .
A considerable amount of literature had been published on mirror analysis
of merchandise trade statistics, such as Day (2015) conducted a mirror study
by comparing China’s merchandise trade statistics with its major trading
partners with the purpose to assess the accuracy of trade data; Javorsek (2016)
analysed asymmetries in bilateral trade between selected Asia-Pacific
countries at regional and further details at countries with higher asymmetries;
and Markhonko (2014) that studied the issues of international trade statistics
asymmetries in constructing inter-country input-output model.
In extension, some researchers had focused their study in certain
commodity sections. For example, Ferrantino and Wang (2007) proposed an
index in terms of the average asymmetry to measure the discrepancies across
trade sectors between United States with China and Hong Kong; Guo (2010)
focused on international trade statistics in manufacturing goods and found
that asymmetric pattern exist between China and its top five trading partners;
and Fisher et al. (2014) reported the asymmetry on external trade statistics
between Palestine and Switzerland based on 6-digit tariff heading.
Studies of reconciliation such as that conducted by the Joint Commission
on Commerce and Trade Statistics Working Group (2012) and China-Canada
Joint Working Group on Trade Statistics Reconciliation (2018) had discussed
asymmetries factors in bilateral trade and demonstrated adjustment which
more closely aligns the two sets of data.
So far, however, there have been fewer studies about mirror analysis that
focuses in detail on Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System
(HS). In addition, no research has been conducted on Sarawak trade
asymmetric. Thus, this paper was prepared to study asymmetry trade statistics
between Sarawak and Japan by focusing on a specific product which is
liquefied natural gas (LNG). The focus on a single product had portrayed an
additional source of reference to measure the quality trade statistics with
major trading partner and product that have greater influences on that region.
Sarawak, the largest state in Malaysia that covers 124,451 km2 land area,
is located in northwest Borneo Island. Abundant in natural resources such as

2 Mirror analysis refers to the comparison of imports and exports data between the trade
partners. The inconsistency exists when the reported exports from country A to country B
do not match the reported imports of country B from country A, which term as bilateral
asymmetries in United Nation International Trade Statistics.
3 “Countries are encouraged, therefore, to periodically conduct bilateral and multilateral
reconciliation studies or implement data exchange so that their statistics can be more
accurate and useful for both national purpose and for international comparisons”.
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