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.
1. Authority
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
3.8 American Goods Returned after Procsesing and/or Assembly
3.9 General Imports
8. Valuation
8.2 Import Charges
8.4 Dutiable Value of Imports and Calculated Duty
8.5 F.A.S. Export Value (Excluding Exports to Canada)
8.7 Balance of Payments (BOP) Basis
8.8 Services
9.1 Schedule B
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
10.2 Export Country of Destination
11. Quantity and Shipping Weight
11.1 Quantity
11.2 Shipping Weight
12.1 District and Port Classification
12.4 Import Distract of Unlading
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
14.1 Former Estimation Methodology Through December 2009 Statistics
14.2 Current Methodology Effective January 2010 Statistics
14.3 Additional Information for Data Users
16. U.S. Trade with Puerto Rico and U.S. Possessions
16.2 Coverage
16.3 Trade with Foreign Countries
17. Sources of Nonsampling Error
17.1 Reporting Errors
17.3 Timeliness
17.4 Data Capture Erros
17.5 Transiting Goods
17.6 Underestimation of Low-Valued Transactions
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
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
• Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
• Rate Provision (Types of Duty)
• Schedule K - Foreign Port Codes
• 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)
7.5 Product Catalogs
7.6 AB/ACE and AES (How is this different from the AES tab?)
8. AES
9. Regulations
Links may take you off of the Foreign Trade website
6. AES Direct
7. OMB Agency Information Quality Guidelines
8. Census Bureau Section 515 Information Quality Guidelines
9. U.S. Census Bureau Regional Offices
10. The United States Commercial Service
11. Export.gov
12. Export Administration Regulations
13. Economics & Statistics Administration
14. USA.gov
15. Data.gov
16. United Nations Statistics Division
17. International Trade Administration