Foreign Fishery Trade Data
We maintain a foreign trade database that can be used to summarize U.S. foreign trade in fishery products, from 1975 to the present. You can get a summary of kilos and dollar value by your choice of years, products, countries, and types of trade.
We purchase the data for this database from the Foreign Trade Division of the U.S. Census Bureau, which in turn gets the data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Customs receives the data from importers and exporters, who submit their transactions using the international Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System: the system for classifying goods in international trade, developed under the auspices of the World Customs Organization, a Brussels-based group with representatives from about 161 countries. The United States is represented in the organization by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The International Trade Commission maintains the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, used by importers to classify their goods. Exporters use Schedule B, maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Data for the foreign trade database are normally scheduled for release to the public 43 days after the close of the statistical month.
About Imports and Exports of Fishery Products
Imports
There are two ways to track imports. “General imports” are recorded when the commodity enters the country. “Imports for consumption” are a combination of entries into the United States for immediate consumption and withdrawals from customs-bonded warehouses. These data reflect the actual entry into U.S. consumption channels of commodities that originated outside the United States.
Exports
Exports may include merchandise of domestic and foreign origin. The census defines “domestic merchandise” to include commodities grown, produced, or manufactured in the United States. For statistical purposes, domestic exports also include commodities of foreign origin that have been changed in the United States from the form in which they were imported, or that have been enhanced in value by further manufacture in the Unites States.
Re-exports
Re-exported “foreign” products are commodities that have entered the United States as imports and not been sold and, at the time of re-export, are in substantially the same condition as when imported. Items imported for sale in the United States but later resold overseas, however, are recorded as exports of domestic goods rather than as re-exports.
Explaining the Dollar Values
For exports and re-exports, the database uses free alongside ship value: the value at the port of export, based on the transaction price including inland freight, insurance, and other charges incurred in placing the merchandise alongside the carrier. Free alongside ship value excludes the cost of loading the merchandise, freight, insurance, and other charges or transportation costs beyond the port of export.
For imports, the database uses customs value: the price actually paid or payable for merchandise when sold for export to the United States, excluding U.S. import duties, freight, insurance, and other charges incurred in bringing the merchandise to the United States. This value is close to free alongside ship value.
Available Data
Cumulative Data For a Chosen Month and Year
Monthly Data
Annual Data
More Information
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Annual summary of imports and exports (1996-2017)
