In order to understand how the structures of trade differ among countries, and how they have changed over time, we need to compile trade statistics using a unified commodity classification system capable of spanning different countries and time periods. International agencies have labored for years to construct standardized trade statistics classification systems to facilitate the compilation of internationally comparable trade statistics, and to simplify customs procedures as well. The Trade Group of the Asian Historical Statistics Project has decided to adopt the first revised edition of the United Nations' Standard International Trade Classification (SITC; the revised edition is here referred to as SITC Rev. 1) to compile data on import and export values and price indexes by commodities.
Two of the most important international standards for classifying commodities are the UN's SITC and the Customs Cooperation Council Nomenclature (CCCN) of the Customs Cooperation Council.
The SITC (1950) was based on the League of Nations' Minimum List of Commodities for International Trade Statistics, which was published in 1937. The UN's Economic and Social Council urged its member nations to use the SITC as the classification standard for their trade statistics. This trade classification, the first to be developed by the UN, is referred to as the original SITC.
Since then, the SITC has been revised several times. The first revision, SITC Rev. 1, was published in 1960, the second, SITC Rev. 2, was published in 1975, and the third, SITC Rev. 3, was published in 1985. Each time, the Economic and Social Council urged UN members adopt the newest revision as the standard for compiling trade statistics. The main changes resulting from the revisions are summarized in the table below.
In order to simplify and standardize customs procedures, the Customs Cooperation Council has compiled a table of articles. The Customs Cooperation Council was established in November 1952 by the Organization for European Economic Co-Operation (OEEC), the forerunner to the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). The Customs Cooperation Council published the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature (BTN). Since then the BTN has been revised twice. In 1977, the CCCN was published, followed by the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS; a unified system for both the nomenclature and classification of commodities) in 1983.
The Customs Cooperation Council commodity table systems were compiled for use as customs rate tables, so they classify commodities into the same sections or chapters when they are made of the same raw materials. In the SITC, in contrast, the Column 1 classification codes of commodities are determined according to stage of processing, so even commodities made from the same raw materials may be classified differently. This system is more suitable for economic analysis. 2)
SITC Rev. 1 was completed in 1960, relatively early in the SITC's history. The reason why we decided on this version for classifying trade commodities was because we need a unified standard for compiling long-term data from both before and after the Second World War. The commodity structures of world trade underwent major changes from the prewar era to the postwar era. For the purposes of compiling prewar trade statistics, it is most logical to use a commodity classification system established during that era, such as the League of Nations' 1937 Minimum List, or a system established soon after, namely the original SITC or the BTN.
For the purposes of compiling postwar trade statistics, on the other hand, the more recently published SITC Rev. 3 or the HS better correspond to commodity trade structures. However, since we intend to compile long-term statistics based on a unified classification standard covering long-term economic statistics for both the prewar and postwar eras, we decided on the 1960 SITC Rev. 1 trade classification system.
As can be seen in the table, SITC has maintained a 5-column classification structure (apart from the original SITC, where the category "Subgroup" did not yet exist), and the first column, "Section," still includes ten articles, as in the original. However, the number of items in the fourth and fifth columns has grown rapidly. SITC Rev. 1 included 10, 56, 177, 625, and 1312 articles, respectively, in the Section, Division, Group, Subgroup, and Item classifications. Since we plan to compile data down to the level of Division, there are 56 commodity trade articles in the Statistics Project tables.
The ten Section items are: 3) 0.Food and live animals 1.Beverrages and tobacco 2.Crude materials,inedible,except fuels 3.Mineral Fuels,lubricants and related materials 4.Animal and vegetable oils and fats 5.Chemicals 6.Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material 7.Machinery and transport equipment 8.Miscellaneous manufactured articles 9.Commodities and transactions not classified according to kind
Neither the UN documents on SITC nor the Customs Cooperation Council materials satisfactorily explain the usage of the standards, and they do not necessarily clarify the standards on which classifications are based. This makes it difficult for us to understand the trade classifications.
In this section we discuss the problems we will face in actually compiling long-term trade data from both pre- and postwar periods using SITC Rev. 1.
Yates, P. Lamartine (1959) Forty Years of Foreign Trade, London: George Allen & Unwin LTD.
Yamamoto Yasuko (1995) "Boeki tokei ni okeru shohin no bunrui" [Commodities and classifications for trade statistics], in
Kinoshita Soshichi and Noda Yosuke, eds., Sekai boeki deeta shisutemu no seibi to riyo [World trade data system: arrangement and application], I.D.E. Statistical Data Series No. 67, Ajia Keizai Kenkyujo [Institute of Developing Economies].
Hitotsubashi University, Institute of Economic Research