March 1, 2012
U.S. trade statistics for exports to Iran erroneously include goods that were not exported to Iran. While the statistics indicate that U.S. firms exported 278 types of goods to Iran from 2004 to 2008, 97 of these types of goods were instead exported to Ireland, Iraq, and other countries. The misidentification of Iran as the recipient resulted from errors in export data filings that Census did not detect or correct. As a result of our review, Census officials stated, Census has begun manually checking all new filings of exports to Iran and
posting corrections to a Census Web page.