INTERNATIONAL MERCHANDISE TRADE STATISTICS: …

Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/52/Rev.2 ____________________________________________________________________________________

Studies in Methods Series M, No.52, Rev.2

__________________________________________________________________________________

INTERNATIONAL MERCHANDISE TRADE STATISTICS:

CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS ____________________________________________________________

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a public retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - without the written permission of the United Nations.

United Nations New York, 1998

Note The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

This publication is also available in print format: United Nations Publication Sales No. E.98.XVII.16 ISBN 92-1-161410-4

Copyright United Nations 1998 All rights reserved

CONTENTS

ii

Paragraphs Introduction................................................... 1 - 8

A. General ................................................ 1 - 5 B. Summary of the recommendations ......................... 6 - 8 Chapters I. Coverage and time of recording ........................... 9 - 63

A. General guidelines ................................ 14 - 15 B. Specific guidelines ............................... 16 - 63

1. Goods to be included in the detailed international merchandise trade statistics .................................. 19 - 41

2. Goods to be excluded from the detailed international merchandise trade statistics .................................. 42 - 54

3. Goods recommended to be excluded from the detailed international merchandise trade statistics but recorded separately so that the detailed data may be adjusted to derive totals of international merchandise trade for national accounts and balance of payments purposes ........................ 55 - 63

II. Trade system ........................................... 64 - 90 A. General ........................................... 64 - 73 B. General trade system .............................. 74 - 79 C. Special trade system .............................. 80 - 85 D. Practical problems and limitations of the special trade system .............................. 86 - 88 E. Recommendations ................................... 89 - 90

III. Commodity classifications ............................ 91 - 110 A. Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System .................................... 94 - 100 B. Standard International Trade Classification, Revision 3 ...................... 101 - 105 C. Classification by Broad Economic Categories ......106 - 108 D. International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities ............. 109 E. Central Product Classification .........................110

iii

IV. Valuation ............................................ 111 - 130 A. Statistical value of imports and exports ........ 111 - 125 B. Currency conversion ............................. 126 - 130

V. Quantity measurement .................................. 131 - 133

VI. Partner country ...................................... 134 - 152 A. General ............................................... 134 B. Criteria for partner country attribution ........ 135 - 141 C. Comparison of alternative approaches ............ 142 - 149 D. Recommendation ........................................ 150 E. Country classification .......................... 151 - 152

VII. Reporting and dissemination .......................... 153 - 163

Annexes Page

A. Basic national accounts and balance of payments concepts and definitions ........................................... 64

B. Definition of customs terms and related definitions ................ 67 C. Rules on customs valuation as set out in the WTO

Agreement on Valuation ............................................. 71 D. Terms of goods delivery ............................................ 82 Index .................................................................. 85

INTRODUCTION

A. GENERAL

1. The present revised International Merchandise Trade Statistics: Concepts and Definitions (IMTS, Rev.2) have been prepared in response to a request made by the Statistical Commission at its twenty-eighth session, in 1995. The Commission recognized a need for further improvement in the area of the methodology of international merchandise trade statistics in view of new developments in international merchandise trade and the methodology recommended in other areas of economic statistics. 1 2. In particular, the Commission: 1 IMTS, Rev.2 deals only with international trade in goods; international trade in services is not covered. The original version was issued in 1970 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.70.XVII.16) and the first revised version in 1982 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.82.XVII.14).

iv

(a) Recommended extensive involvement of countries, including in the production of the first draft;

(b) Considered that the following issues should be taken well into account: harmonization with the System of National Accounts, 1993 (1993 SNA) 2 and the Balance of Payments Manual, fifth edition (BPM5), 3 the need for continuity of long-term time-series of international trade, the practical issues of data collection, the identification of partner countries and the work on rules of origin being conducted at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Customs Organization (WCO), and the utilization of existing regional machinery for the development and implementation of the concepts and definitions. 4 3. The process for developing IMTS, Rev.2 included having the input of the Task Force on International Trade Statistics created by the Statistical Commission; 5 the services of a Consultant; 6 preparation of initial drafts of specific sections by the United Nations Statistics Division, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and WTO; preparation of the integrated draft by the United Nations Statistics Division; review of the initial outline and drafts by individual organizations and countries; 7 and an expert group meeting held in New York from 20 to 24 May 1996, which included both country and 2 Commission of the European Communities, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, United Nations and World Bank (United Nations Publication, Sales No. E.94.XVII.4).

3 Washington, D.C., International Monetary Fund, 1993. 4 Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1995, Supplement No. 8 (E/1995/28), para. 19 (c) (ii) and (iii). 5 The Task Force includes representatives of the following: Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat (Statistics Division, Macroeconomics Division), Economic Commission for Europe, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Economic Commission for Africa, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, International Trade Center, Inter-American Development Bank, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Statistical Office of the European Communities and World Customs Organization. 6 Mr. C. Patel, former Director, Real Sector Division, Statistics Department, International Monetary Fund. 7 Thirty-four countries (Australia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovenia, Suriname, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Viet Nam, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe) and seven international organizations (United Nations (Department of Economic and Social Affairs), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Statistical Office of the European Communities and World Customs Organization).

5

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download