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Guide to Foreign Trade Statistics

The Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division compiles and publishes the official U.S. Foreign Trade Statistics.  This guide is intended to help data users understand and use the data for business, government, and general purposes.  It contains links to other pages on the Foreign Trade Website and other important trade resources. The foreign trade statistical program is complex and reflects the dynamic trade environment. As these changes occur the content of this guide will be updated.


Description of the Foreign Trade Statistical Program

1. Authority

2. Source of Information

      2.1 Exports

      2.2 Imports

3. Coverage

      3.1 General

      3.2 Exports

      3.3 Domestic Exports

      3.4 Foreign Exports

      3.5 Imports

      3.6 Bonded Warehouses

      3.7 Foreign Trade Zones

      3.8 American Goods Returned after Procsesing and/or Assembly

      3.9 General Imports

      3.10 Imports for Consumption

4. Statistical Month

5. Merchandise Trade Balance

6. Seasonal Adjustment

7. Constant Dollar Adjustment

8. Valuation

      8.1 Customs Import Value

      8.2 Import Charges

      8.3 C.I.F. Import Value

      8.4 Dutiable Value of Imports and Calculated Duty

      8.5 F.A.S. Export Value (Excluding Exports to Canada)

      8.6 U.S. Exports to Canada

      8.7 Balance of Payments (BOP) Basis

      8.8 Services

9. Commodity Classifications

      9.1 Schedule B

      9.2 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated for Statistical Reporting Purposes (HTSUSA)

      9.3 Standard International Trade Classification

      9.4 North American Industry Classification System

      9.5 End Use Commodity Category

      9.6 Agriculural and Nonagricultural Commodities

      9.7 Advanced Technology Products

10. Country Designations

      10.1 Country Classification

      10.2 Export Country of Destination

      10.3 Import Country of Origin

      10.4 Statistical Presentation

11. Quantity and Shipping Weight

      11.1 Quantity

      11.2 Shipping Weight

12. Customs Districts

      12.1 District and Port Classification

      12.2 District of Exportation

      12.3 Import District of Entry

      12.4 Import Distract of Unlading

      12.5 Statistical Presentation

      12.6 Special Districts

13. Background

      13.1 Background

      13.2 Origin of Movement (OM) State

      13.3 Origin of Movement (OM) Zip

      13.4 Limitations

      13.5 Where to Get State and Substate Export Data Products

      13.6 Inquiries

14. Low-Valued Statistics

      14.1 Former Estimation Methodology Through December 2009 Statistics

      14.2 Current Methodology Effective January 2010 Statistics

      14.3 Additional Information for Data Users

15. Transportation Statistics

      15.1 Method of Transportation

      15.2 Intransit of Shipments

16. U.S. Trade with Puerto Rico and U.S. Possessions

      16.1 Source of Information

      16.2 Coverage

      16.3 Trade with Foreign Countries

17. Sources of Nonsampling Error

      17.1 Reporting Errors

      17.2 Undocumented Shipments

      17.3 Timeliness

      17.4 Data Capture Erros

      17.5 Transiting Goods

      17.6 Underestimation of Low-Valued Transactions

18. Other Quality Issues

      18.1 Estimated Calculated Duty

      18.2 Comparison of Commodity Data

      18.3 Quantity and Shipping Weight Suppression

      18.4 Districts

19. Revision Procedure for Merchandise Goods Trade

20. Sources of Further Information about the Foreign Trade Statistics


Foreign Trade References

1. About Foreign Trade

2. Country Groups

3. Conversion Tables and Units of Quantity

4. Definitions

5. FAQs

6. Schedule B

      6.1 Search (non-government site)

      6.2 Validation

      6.3 Browse

      6.4 Download

      6.5 Obsolete Codes

7. References

      7.1 Announcement and Information Papers

      7.2 Codes

          • ATP

          • Air Carrier

          • Concordance

          • Country Sub-Codes

          • End-use Codes

          • Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States

          • HTS Codes not Valid for AES

          • NAICS Codes

          • Rate Provision (Types of Duty)

          • Schedule B - Export Codes

          • Schedule C - Country Codes

          • Schedule D - District Codes

          • Schedule K - Foreign Port Codes

          • SIC Codes

          • SITC Codes

      7.3 Guides and Procedures

          • Foreign Trade Statistics - Security Guidelines

          • Guide to Foreign Trade Statistics

          • Information on the Collection and Publication of Trade Statistics

          • Correct Way to Fill Out the S.E.D

          • Revision Procedure for Merchandise Goods Trade (not a Guide)

          • Procedure to Correct Foreign Trade Data (not a Guide)

      7.4 How the Data are Collected

          • From the Guide (this is a repeat of something from Section 2)

          • Data Confidentiality Notice

      7.5 Product Catalogs

      7.6 AB/ACE and AES (How is this different from the AES tab?)

8. AES

9. Regulations

10. Global Reach Blog

 

 


Source: U.S. Census Bureau | Foreign Trade | ftdwebmaster@census.gov |  Last Revised: April 15, 2015