METHODOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS

Methodology: This publication reports U.S. exports and imports of goods and services.  Exports are total goods (domestic and foreign exports or reexports) on a F.a.s. (free alongside ship) valuation basis, and imports are general imports on a Customs valuation basis. Except where noted all values are in current U.S. dollars; data are not seasonally adjusted.  Trade statistics are presented on a Census basis, a Balance of Payments (BOP) basis, and on a National Income and Accounts (NIPA) basis.  U.S. total trade figures were the latest revised figures available at the time of publication.

U.S. Bureau of the Census data (Census basis) concordances and definitions were used to link the trade figures into consistent time series based on the Harmonized System (HS) of commodity classification.  Commencing in 1990, U.S. exports to Canada are derived from import data compiled by Canada.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is the source agency for U.S. trade in services.  The BEA also converts the Census basis goods trade to a BOP basis to conform to the Balance of Payments accounts concepts and methodology.  The BOP basis for goods reflects adjustments for timing, coverage, and valuation to the data compiled by the Census Bureau.

The major adjustments concern: military trade of U.S.defense agencies, additional nonmonetary gold transactions, and inland freight in Canada and Mexico. The BOP basis for U.S. trade in goods and services is the official U.S. government presentation. However, due to limited country and commodity data on a BOP basis, most detailed data in this publication are presented on a Census basis.

The BEA also converts U.S. trade in goods and services from the BOP basis to the NIPA basis.  The NIPA basis for goods and services reflects adjustments for statistical differences and coverage.  The major adjustments concern: the treatment of U.S. territories, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, and nonmonetary gold transactions.
Starting in 1998, this publication exists only as an electronic document and is available from the Office of Trade and Economic Analysis' (OTEA) website (free).

OTEA's website address is http://www.ita.doc.gov/tradestats or http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea .

Parts of this publication are available via the U.S. government's  FedStats website, http://www.fedstats.gov (free), that provides links to more than 100 federal Internet sites.

As this publication now exists only in an electronic rather than a print form, the updated tables on the OTEA website will appear over a period of time rather than on one date. Tables 1-13 use revised data while all others use unrevised data.

Preliminary versions of tables 1-13 will appear first while the final versions of these tables will appear after Census releases final data (for the preceding calendar year) in June.  Some of these thirteen tables may be updated with revised preliminary data during the March-June period.
Further information about this publication is available by contacting:  David R. Barton, U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, Office of Trade and Economic Analysis, H-2224, Washington, DC 20230 (telephone: voice, (202) 482-1607; fax, (202) 482-4614); email, David_Barton@ita.doc.gov.

Definitional Notes:  When necessary, country and regional foreign trade data were adjusted to create data series that utilize the same country definitions over time.

Europe consists of Western Europe and Eastern Europe.  Western Europe includes the European Union (EU-15) and the non-EU Western Europe.  The European Union includes Austria,Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal (including Azores and the Madeira Islands), Spain (including Spanish Africa and the Canary Islands), Sweden, and the United Kingdom.  The non-EU countries in Western Europe include Bosnia-Herzegovina,Croatia, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechenstein,Macedonia, Malta, Norway, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Switzerland,and Turkey, and, after 1987, Other Non-EU WesternEurope (Andorra, Faroe Islands, Monaco, San Marino, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Island, and Vatican City).  Eastern Europe includes Albania, the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania),Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and the Newly Independent States (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan).

The Western Hemisphere includes all countries of the Western Hemisphere except for the United States. NAFTA members are Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.

The Caribbean countries include the Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward and Windward Islands (i.e., Antigua, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Christopher-Nevis and Anguilla, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent), Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands.  The Central American countries consist of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

The countries of South America are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.  The other countries of the Western Hemisphere include Bermuda, Cuba, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Greenland, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Pierre and Miquelon.

Asia includes Japan, South Korea, Taiwan plus China, Hong Kong, and Macau plus the ASEAN (10), the Middle East and Other Asia.    The ASEAN members are defined later in this section. The Middle East includes Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel (including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Neutral Zone, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and the Yemen Arab Republic.

The other Asia countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India,  North Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Southern Asia NEC (not elsewhere classified).  Southern Asia NEC includes Bhutan, East Timor, and Maldive Islands.

Australia and Oceania consists of: Australia, Australian island dependencies (i.e., Christmas Island, Cocos Island, Heard and McDonald Islands, and Norfolk Island), Fiji, French Pacific Islands (i.e., French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna), New Zealand, New Zealand island dependencies (i.e., Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau Islands), Papua New Guinea, Southern Pacific Islands (i.e., Kiribati, Pitcairn Island, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu), Former Trust Territory (i.e., Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and Palau), Western Samoa, and Other Pacific Islands NEC (Nauru and Tonga).

Africa consists of all the countries on the continent.  French Indian Ocean areas include Reunion and French Southern and Antarctic Lands. In January 1993 the U.S. Bureau of the Census began reporting trade values for Eritrea.

The developed countries of the world include Canada, Japan, all  of Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of South Africa.  Developing countries include all other countries. 
For a variety of reasons, U.S. trade with the World does not equal the sum of trade with the developed and developing countries.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) consists of eleven countries:  Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Ecuador left OPEC in late 1992 while Gabon left in late 1994. Data shown in the tables are for the current member nations. OPEC countries are included in developing countries.

The ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members are Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Cambodia was not a member in previous years.

The twenty-one Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.

Changes:  Three SIC-based tables (formerly 26-28) have been discontinued. See the Frequently Asked Questions section for more information about SIC-NAICS. New tables for 2003 are Tables 55-57 (exports, imports, and balances) for 1984-02 for each U.S. trading partner. Table 58 shows our trading partners' ranks for 1984,1994, and 2002. Table 59 provides both U.S. and China's shares for the world's leading importing countries.

The end of each table indicates the date of last change.  The notes section will usually indicate when the next update, if any, is scheduled.

Values for EU-25 and EU-10 were/will be added to Tables 6-8, 14-16, and 18-20 in the Addendum section.  EU-10 is the group of ten countries that joined the EU on 5/1/2004. They are: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. EU25 equals existing EU15 plus the EU10.

Last updated, 04/30/2004.