Commentary
About the data
Definitions
Data sources
International trade links between OECD and developing countries have strengthened considerably during the past three decades. The share of exports from high-income OECD countries going to developing countries has increased—and so has the share of developing country exports going to OECD countries. The increase in trade is most pronounced in the rapidly integrating regions of East Asia and the Pacific and Latin America. The freeing of trade regimes in the transition economies of Europe and Central Asia has begun to have an impact on their trade, especially with the European Union. South Asia, starting from a much smaller base, has made large relative gains. But the Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa continue to lose share in trade with the OECD.
Particularly important for developing countries, because of employment-creating effects, has been the strong growth of the OECD’s market for their manufactured exports. In 1964 only about 7 percent of OECD imports of manufactures originated in non-OECD countries (based on 1995 OECD membership); by 1995 this share had risen to about 25 percent.
Just as there are differences in the export performance of developing countries, there are those in the import performance of OECD countries. Links between North America and non-OECD countries have expanded at an above-average pace—U.S. and Canadian manufactured imports originating in non-OECD countries grew fourfold between 1964 and 1995, from 9 percent to 37 percent. Partly as a result of European integration initiatives, trade in manufactures between the European Union (EU) and developing countries grew at a below-average pace. In 1995 only about 18 percent of EU imports of manufactures originated in non-OECD countries. Labor-intensive products have been among the most dynamic categories of manufactured trade for developing countries, which roughly doubled their market share in high-income economies for these products during the past two decades.
Data on merchandise trade are compiled from customs reports by the United Nations Statistical Office in the Commodity Trade (COMTRADE) database. COMTRADE contains data on the imports and exports of more than 150 countries or economic areas classified by product and by country of origin and destination. For many countries records tabulated according to revision 1 of the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) system extend back to 1962. In the mid-1970s COMTRADE also began reporting more detailed SITC revision 2 data, and in the late 1980s it began compiling records in the still more detailed revision 3 system. At its lowest level the revision 3 system differentiates among more than 2,000 items.
Various statistical problems may affect the quality of COMTRADE statistics. Because COMTRADE expresses all trade values in U.S. dollars, exchange rates are used to convert data originally expressed in local currencies. In some countries, particularly those in which there are black market rates that differ from official rates, the selection of an inappropriate conversion factor may produce important statistical biases. At more detailed levels of product classification countries may inadvertently classify goods in different SITC groups, resulting in discrepancies in matched partner country statistics. An even more serious problem may be traders’ incentives to falsify customs invoices (to reduce tariff charges or to effect capital flight). Smuggling, which is not reflected in COMTRADE, also may affect data quality, particularly for trade between countries with shared borders. And information on trade is missing or unreliable for many African countries that have not yet developed the capacity to compile accurate statistics.
• Exports are all merchandise exports by high-income OECD countries to low- and middle-income economies as recorded in the United Nations COMTRADE database.
• Imports are all merchandise imports by high-income OECD countries from low- and middle-income economies as recorded in the United Nations COMTRADE database.
• High-income OECD countries in 1995 were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
• High-income, non-OECD economies in 1995 included Hong Kong, Israel, the Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan, China.
• European Union comprises Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
COMTRADE statistics are available in machine-readable form from the United Nations Statistical Office. Although not as comprehensive as the underlying COMTRADE records, detailed statistics on international trade are published annually in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s Handbook of International Trade and Development Statistics and the United Nations International Trade Statistics Yearbook.
top_6Back to top
Back to Contents