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Available nomenclatures in WITS

External Trade and Tariff Classifications

Six international classifications applied to trade and tariff data are available in WITS:

  • H3 - The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, or Harmonized System (HS), 2007 version with data from 2007. This is a tariff and trade classification maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO);
  • H2 - The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, or Harmonized System (HS), 2002 version with data from 2002. This is a tariff and trade classification maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO);
  • H1 - HS 1996 version with data from 1996. This is a tariff and trade classification maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO); it preceded HS02 and most countries using the Harmonized System as the basis for recording their trade and tariffs will make the transition to it;
  • H0 - HS 1988/1992 version with data from 1988. This is a tariff and trade classification maintained by the WCO; it preceded HS96 and most countries using the Harmonized System as the basis for recording their trade and tariffs have made the transition to it;
  • S4 - The Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), Revision 4 with data from 2007. This is a trade classification maintained by the United Nations (UN) and is the last in a series of three revisions of SITC which are used primarily for analysis of trade flows;
  • S3 - The Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), Revision 3 with data from 1986. This is a trade classification maintained by the United Nations (UN) and is the last in a series of three revisions of SITC which are used primarily for analysis of trade flows;
  • S2 - SITC, Revision 2 with data from 1976. This is a trade classification maintained by the UN. It is the basis for Revision 3; and,
  • S1 - SITC, Revision 1 with data from 1962. This is a trade classification maintained by the UN. It is the basis for Revision 2.

Industry Classifications

Two classifications are included in WITS:

  • I3 - The International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) of All Economic Activities, Revision 3. This is an industry classification maintained by the UN. This classification of economic activities is arranged so that entities can be grouped according to the activity they carry out. ISIC, Revision 3, was introduced in 1989; and,
  • I2 - ISIC, Revision 2 was introduced in 1968. This is an industry classification maintained by the UN. It is the basis for Revision 3.

National Income Accounts

A single classification is available:

  • B1 - Classification by Broad Economic Categories (BEC). This is a national income accounts classification maintained by the UN. BEC is intended to categorize trade statistics into large economic classes of commodities and was developed in such a way as to provide elements that enable the construction of aggregates approximately comparable to those for the three basic classes of goods in the 1968 UN System of National Accounts (SNA).

For detailed information on the international family of classifications and their uses, go to the United Nations Statistical Divisions Classifications Registry: http://esa.un.org/unsd/cr/.This web site also provides the complete structure of the classifications in several languages.

Other

WITS contains four other classifications which are not international standards:

  • MTN WTO Multilateral Trade Negotiation (MTN) aggregations of Agricultural and Industrial Products into broad categories of interest such as 'Fish and Fish Products', 'Tropical Beverages', 'Transport Equipment', 'Electric Machinery', 'Petroleum', etc. Also covered are Stages of Processing: raw, semi, and finished product categories, each of which is subdivided into agriculture and industry.
  • SIC - the United States Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). The SIC is the standard statistical classification for all economic statistics classified by industry. It is used to promote the comparability of establishment data describing the US economy, covers the entire field of economic activities and defines industries in accordance with the composition and structure of the economy.
  • GTAP - The University of Purdue Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) was established in 1992, with the objective of lowering the cost of entry for those seeking to conduct quantitative analyses of international economic issues in an economy-wide framework.
  • HS Combined - the HS Combined nomenclature combines all current and historical revisions of HS. As a country reports its tariff scheduled for a given year in only one revision (HS88/92 (H0), HS96(H1), HS02(H2) or HS07(H3)),combining these different revisions enables users to choose products without knowing in which nomenclature a particular country reports in a particular year. For more information, see About WITS HSCombined.

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