World merchandise trade by region and selected economy.

Prepared by: Merchandise Trade Section, Statistics Division, WTO.

Closing date: July 1999.

Next update: March 2000.

Sources

IMF, International Financial Statistics; UNSD, Monthly Bulletin of Statistics; FAO, Trade Yearbook; ECLAC; Preliminary Overview of the Economy of Latin America and the Caribbean, national statistics and Secretariat estimates.

Notes

For definitions, methods and general remarks see the Technical Notes in WTO, Annual Report, 1998, International Trade Statistics.

Warnings

Figures for 1998 are provisional.

Data on volume are much more restricted in terms of coverage and availability than those on value. As a result, the volume estimates are subject to a wider margin of error, and figures for a number of countries and regions that were estimated for aggregation purposes are not shown.

It should be noted that the World and Asia totals contain a significant element of double counting due to the use of merchandise trade statistics according to the general system of trade.

Country aggregates eliminating the most significant amount of double counting (namely Hong Kong, re-exports or imports for re-exports) are shown in the memorandum item.

Beginning with 1996, trade between the successor States of the former USSR is included.

Breaks in continuity in the trade figures were identified for the following countries:

for Hungary and Morocco between 1995 and 1996 due to the inclusion of shipments through processing zones beginning with 1996;  for the Slovak Republic between 1996 and 1997 and for Poland between 1997 and 1998, due to change in custom procedures.

Memorandum item

This item provides alternative country groupings, defined as follows:

Developed economies- North America, EU(15), EFTA, South Africa, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

Developing economies - Latin America, Africa less South Africa, Europe less EU(15) and EFTA, the Middle East,and Asia excluding Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

Transition economies - Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and the CIS.

These designations do not imply an expression of an opinion by the Secretariat concerning either the status of any country, territory or area, or the delimitation of its frontiers.