What is the process for undisclosed or confidential trade statistics in UN Comtrade? Are there any uniform rules for all countries? #

Certain countries might choose not to disclose specific details about their trade. In UN Comtrade, the data received from countries has already been subjected to national confidentiality rules. There is no further application of confidentiality from our side.

Country practices on confidentiality can be viewed at https://comtrade.un.org/survey/Reports/byQuestion on question 27. The international recommendation is to apply passive confidentiality, but national practices may vary. The information about passive and active confidentiality can be found in the IMTS 2010 Concepts and Definitions.

However, this confidential trade data will still be accounted for within broader commodity categories and the overall trade value. For example, trade information not disclosed for a specific 6-digit HS code will contribute to the total trade and might be considered within the 2-digit HS chapter when reported. Similar scenarios could arise across other classifications of commodities. 

What is the process for the conversion of residuals or non-standard commodity codes? #

Countries may report data using non-standard codes.  The validity of these non-standard codes is checked from the most detailed to the highest level, from 6, 4, to 2 digit levels.  When the code is invalid at a level, the code is mapped accordingly to 999999, 9999, and 99.   Due to confidential information suppression at different HS levels, it is possible to have 99<=9999<=999999 values.

Countries may also use chapters 98 and 99, which are non-standard HS chapters, for multiple purposes. Some of these goods cannot be mapped to relevant HS chapters, headings, or sub-headings.  Sometimes, reporting countries may provide additional information about the HS chapter or heading identification for these non-standard codes.  In such cases, we map those non-standard codes to the appropriate HS chapter or heading accordingly, thereby reducing the value distributed/assigned to 999999.  Please see example below.

The country reported data with non-standard commodities 010100, 980590, 999900, and 990100.

1. Non-standard commodity code 010100 is not valid at the HS subheading level (6) but is valid at the HS heading (4) and chapter (2) levels.  The corresponding value is, therefore, assigned to 999999, 0101, and 01. 
2. Non-standard commodity codes 980590, 999900 are not valid at any HS level and are assigned to 999999, 9999, and 99.
3. Non-standard commodity code 990100 is not valid at the HS subheading (6) and heading (4) levels, but the country provides additional information that codes in format 99NN00 represent confidential commodities under HS NN chapter, which is at the 2-digit level.  The corresponding value for 990100 is therefore assigned to 999999, 9999 and 01.

Confidentiality is maintained at the most detailed level while minimizing the loss of information at the higher levels. The approach balances the handling of confidentiality and preserving the amount of available information.

For the most granular data, users can view  tariffline data.

For more information, please refer to the document: Methodology Guide for UN Comtrade.