A new method will be introduced for collecting data on intra-EU imports in the compilation of the statistics on international trade in goods starting from the statistical year 2026

Finnish companies have been obligated to report their import and export data on trade in goods between EU countries to Finnish Customs since Finland joined the EU. However, small companies below a certain threshold have been exempt from this reporting obligation. Data on intra-EU trade for the statistics on international trade in goods has been collected through Intrastat declarations, while data on trade with non-EU countries has been obtained from customs declarations. The data on intra-EU and extra-EU trade has been combined in the statistics on international trade in goods.

The European Union has long aimed to reduce the reporting burden on businesses while maintaining the quality of statistics. The Framework Regulation on Business Statistics introduced, among other things, the mandatory exchange of company-level export data between Member States. The exchange of export data between EU countries began with the statistical year 2022.  The objective in developing the international trade in goods statistics compilation is that all Member States collect export data for intra-EU trade, while import data for intra-EU trade is constructed in each Member State using export data collected by other countries. Estonia was the first to adopt this method in 2025, replacing import declarations for intra-EU trade with data collected by other Member States, but so far other EU countries have only partially used export data.

The quality of export data sent by other Member States has been thoroughly examined by Finnish Customs, and different methods of utilizing the data have been studied. The chosen method, where exchanged export data fully replaces Intrastat import declarations, achieves the greatest reduction in the reporting burden with minimal impact on the overall value of intra-EU imports. The data basis for intra-EU import statistics will expand as the complete export data from other EU Member States becomes available for compiling import statistics. Using this method, Finland’s data on import from EU countries will be based on information provided by approximately 30,000 companies in other EU countries about their exports to Finland. 

Finnish Customs will start using export data collected by other Member States for compiling statistics on imports of goods from EU countries starting from the statistical year 2026. This export data will completely replace the data previously collected from Finnish importing companies. From 2026 onwards, the reporting obligation for intra-EU trade will be removed entirely for imports and will apply only to exports. There will be no changes to data collection for trade with non-EU countries; the primary source will remain customs declarations. 

The administrative burden on companies engaged in international trade in goods will be significantly reduced as the obligation to report imports of goods from other EU countries is removed.  This change affects more than 4,400 Finnish companies and is estimated to reduce the administrative burden related to trade in goods between EU countries by up to 70 percent.  

The first international trade in goods statistics compiled using the new data collection method will be published in March 2026. Preliminary statistics for international trade in goods from 2026 onwards will be published 40 days after the end of the statistical month, which is about two days later than before.  Preliminary data for January will be published on 12 March 2026, and detailed data on 30 March 2026.  

The change in the data collection method for EU imports will cause changes to detailed figures for intra-EU imports, but the overall level will remain consistent with the previous method. Almost all country and goods distributions will change when it comes to EU imports. The new method also affects confidentiality in imports since each EU Member State determines their own commodity code suppressions for exports. Commodity code suppressions for imports granted by Finnish Customs earlier will also remain in force throughout the statistical year 2026. In practice, this means that there are more commodity code suppressions than before in the information published by Finnish Customs about imports from EU countries. Finnish Customs will provide more detailed information on the changes to the content of the statistics on international trade in good in February–March 2026.