Product description: Concentration of Foreign Trade in 2005

Purpose of use and statutory basis

Foreign Trade Statistics describes the commodity trade between Finland and other Member States of the European Union (EU) and between Finland and Third Countries i.e. internal and external trade. Foreign Trade Statistics is the official information source on the importation, exportation, and balance of trade of Finland. Foreign Trade Statistics is an instrument of importance for decision makers, planners, and researchers in the public and private sectors, as well as in the operations of EU and many international organisations.

Foreign Trade Statistics is based on the legislation of the European Community, as well as on the national Customs Act of Finland (1466/94) and the Statistics Act (280/2004). The EU legislation is divided in two parts. The Council's basic regulation on internal trade statistics (EC) No 638/2004 provides the methodological basis for the statistics on internal trade, furthermore the Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95 lays down provisions as regards statistics on external trade, i.e. trade of the community and its member states with third countries.

Concepts, definitions, and classifications used

Statistical registration of goods is based on the Combined Nomenclature (CN). The Combined Nomenclature is based on the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System, World Customs organisation, WCO, and it is applied at both the tariff classification and the compilation of statistics within the European Community.

The export statistics are compiled according to countries of destination using the FOB value ("free on board") and the import statistics according to country of origin using the CIF value ("cost, insurance, freight"). In the Survey on Concentration of Foreign Trade the statistical material based on the CN-nomenclature is also combined according to following classifications:

- Classification of products according to kind of activity; Classification of Products by Activities (CPA). CPA is based on the Council Regulations, EEC, No 3969/93 on the statistical classification of products by activity in the European Economic Community

- The classification of economic activities in the European Community; Nomenclature générale des Activités économiques dans les Communautés européennes (NACE 2002)

The classification according to countries is based on the Commission Regulation (EC) No 1779/2002 on the nomenclature of countries and territories for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States. The Country Codes follow the coding according to the international standards of ISO/DIS 3166. Regional groupings are defined in the explanations published in the Monthly Bulletin. Every survey on country groups ( e.g. in the survey on developing countries) contains information on which countries belong to which groups.

Following country group codes have been used in the survey:

  • EU25 (AT BE CY CZ DE DK EE ES FR GB GR HU IE IT LT LU LV MT NL PL PT SE SI SK)
  • Euro zone (AT BE DE ES FR GR IE IT LU NL PT)
  • EU25 countries outside the Euro zone (DK GB SE CY CZ EE HU LT LV MT PL SI SK)
  • Rest of Europe (Other European countries than EU25 countries)
  • External trade (Other countries than EU25 countries)
  • North America (CA GL PM US)
  • Far East (AF BD BN BT CN HK ID IN JP KG KH KP KR KZ LA LK MM MN MO MV MY NP PH PK SG TH TJ TL TM TW UZ VN)
  • Baltic states (EE LT LV)

Following CPA combined classifications have been used in the survey:

  • DA Food stuffs and beverages
  • DB Textiles
  • DD Wood and wood products
  • DE Pulp, paper and and paper products
  • DG Chemicals and chemical products
  • DJ Basic metals
  • DK Machinery and equipment
  • DL Electrical and optical equipment
  • DM Transport equipment

Following classification of activities have been used in the survey:

  • D Industry (TOL 15-37)
  • DE Pulp papers and paper products (TOL 21)
  • DG Chemicals, chemical products and man-made fibres (TOL 24)
  • DJ Metal processing and metal products (TOL 27-28)
  • DK Manufacture of machinery and equipment (TOL 29)
  • DL Manufacture of electrical and optical equipment (TOL 30-33)
  • G Wholesale and retail trade (TOL 50-52)
  • 51 Wholesale and commission trade (TOL 51)

Reliability and timing of the Foreign Trade Statistics

The survey has been calculated from final foreign trade data.



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