SUMMARY:

This report provides General Import statistics by date of import from the Census Bureau for a variety of recent time periods on countries that exceed certain thresholds. The statistics are also aggregated into notional categories and country groupings for the convenience of CITA Agencies. The status of any controls on these imports is also provided. Data does not include plastic apparel.

DEFINITIONS:

General Import Statistics:
All imports received in a given period of time, regardless of date of export, which have been

Entered directly for consumption in the United States, or
Entered into warehouse for temporary storage.
These shipments may either be subsequently re-
exported or ultimately entered for consumption.
* = data was not collected during this time period.

General Import statistics are not comparable to:

the Performance Report statistics, which select only imports which were exported within periods of time defined in agreements,
Customs statistics, which not only are defined by date of export, like the performance statistics, but also differ in that they report withdrawals from warehouse for consumption instead of entries into warehouse.

Additional definitions and useful information regarding U.S. trade statistics can be found in the U.S. Census Bureau's Guide to Foreign Trade Statistics.

Category 0 = Total Textiles and Apparel:
Total imports of textile and apparel in products that were subject to possible quota restraint by the United States, but not necessarily restrained, under the MFA (Multi-Fiber Arrangement). The WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing succeeded the MFA on January 1, 1995, and expired on January 1, 2005. Import quotas under the MFA were based on the Textile Import Category System. See the Textile Correlation for a correlation between the Textile Import Category System and the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS). Import data are collected and compiled based on their HTS classification and Textile Import Category.

Note: While data for the silk apparel categories Categories 733-759 and 71 are shown, they are not included in any of the aggregate categories.

SME: (Square Meter Equivalent):
A notional, common unit of quantity, constant across categories and time. Conversion Factors are used to convert units of quantity into SME. See the Textile Correlation for a listing of the conversion factors.

THRESHOLDS:
Data is provided on each category, provided that imports in the most recent year-ending period or the past year-ending period are greater than the threshold for that category.

Category	Threshold (Million SME)
0, 1	4.2
2	0.8
11-14, 30-32, 60-62, 80-82	1.7
40-42	0.2
200-229, 237, 239	0.8
300-320, 326, 361-363, 369	0.8
330-359	0.6
400-469	0.08
600-627,628, 629, 665, 670	0.8
630-659	0.6
800-899	0.08
810	0.4
899	0.8

STATUS OF CONTROLS: (First column, headed by a 'C' or 'Ctrl'): For each category listed in the correlation:

• 'O' = No limit at this level
• 'SL' = specific limit
• 'P' = 'Partial' control; only certain HTS items within the category(s) are controlled
• 'CM' = consultation mechanism
• 'C' = called level
• 'DCL' = designated consultation level
• 'MCL' = minimum consultation level
• 'Z' = different agreements in effect ( merged categories only)
• 'AL' = agreed level
• 'E' = e system
• 'G' = group controlled
• 'RL' = restraint limit

For each notional (aggregate) category (0-2, 11-14, 30-32, 40-42, 60-62, 80-82):

• O or (blank) = No Aggregate limit at this level.

TIME PERIODS: The Major Shippers Report includes data for the past two calendar years plus the following:

• Year-Ending (abbreviated as YE): Imports received in the twelve-month period ending in the stated month, i.e. YE 5/2006 is the total of imports received between 6/2005 and 5/2006.
• Year-to-Date: Imports received between January and the stated month in a given year.

Many of our other reports follow this format.

Countries:

Notional Countries (Country Groupings)
World	Imports from all countries.
-ASEAN	Imports from members of ASEAN: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.
_ANDEAN	Imports from countries designated as beneficiary countries for purposes of the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) - Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
-CBI	Imports from members of the Caribbean Basin Initiative: Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent/Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
_CAFTA	Imports from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.
-EU	Imports from members of the European Union.
_EU12	Imports from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom
-EU15	Imports from above plus Sweden, Finland and Austria .
-OECD	Imports from members of the OECD: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Korea, South, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. **Japan and Mexico are members of the OECD, but are not included in the OECD totals.
-SUB-SAH	Imports from Sub-Saharan African Countries: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Rep., Chad, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, St Helena, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia, Zimbabwe
-T,K,HK	Imports from Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong.
-C,T,K,HK	Imports from China, Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong.
OTHER:
YUGOSLV1	Imports from Yugoslavia prior to the statistical month of June 1992.
YUGOSLV2	Imports from the remaining parts of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). Data begins with the statistical month June 1992.

Prepared by: Trade Data Division, Office of Textiles and Apparel, U.S. Dept. of Commerce.
Revised: July 28, 2006.