*** Concordance for Schedule B Exports, 1972-1977 ***



Description:



For 1972-1977, exports to the United States at a disaggregate level

were measured according to the Schedule B classification.  The

Schedule B numbers differ very substantially from those used after

1977, though they are referred to by the same name.

The Schedule B numbers for 1972-1977 are similar to those used

for the SITC, Revision 1; the Schedule B numbers for 1978-1988

are similar to those used in the Tarriff Schedules of the United

States; and the Schedule E numbers for 1978-1988 are similar to

those used for the SITC, Revision 2.



The file CON72_77.ASC contains a complete list of the Schedule B numbers

for 1972-1977, along with various information about that commodity.



Record Layout:



The variables included are:



columns 1-7     -   Schedule B number

columns 9-16    -   1972 export-based SIC number

columns 18-22   -   Revision 1 SITC number

columns 24-27   -   End use classification

columns 29-30   -   First year Schedule B number is used

columns 32-33   -   Last year Schedule B number is used

columns 35-37   -   Units of quantity (see UNIT7288.TXT)

columns 39-128  -   Description of Schedule B commodity

column  130     -   End of record indicator (the number 1)



Missing and Imputed Values:



Some of the Units and Descriptions are missing, and are indicated by blank

fields.



For those commodities with missing Descriptions, or Descriptions in

lower-case, the SITC Rev. 1 numbers, 1972 Export-based SIC numbers,

and End-use classifications were imputed.  This was generally done by

using the same codes as appeared for the lagged commodity within the

concordance.





Special Considerations:



It should be noted that the Schedule B numbers for any commodity change

over time, so the only way to keep track of a given commodity is by

its alphabetic description.  One way to identify all the Schedule B

numbers corresponding to a given commodity is to SORT the data by the

description.  However, the descriptions themselves  also change slightly

over time due to variations in spelling, etc.  This means that the set

of Schedule B numbers for a given description will not equal all the

Schedule B numbers for that item, since there may be slightly different

alphabetic descriptions for essentially the same item.



Some attempt has been made to resolve this issue by using consistent

alphabetic description for commodities over various years, but cases

of slight changes in spelling still remain.



Related Files:



The first 20 characters of the Description has been used to identify the

Schedule B commodities in the files EXPYR_1.ASC, EXPYR_2.ASC, EXPYR_3.ASC,

and EXPYR_4.ASC for the years YR=72,73,...,77.  The SIC and SITC numbers,

and units of quantity in this concordance are identical to those in EXP*.ASC

for 1972-77.



Size:  CON72_77.ASC contains 4,175 records.



Source:



For the years 1972-1977, the Schedule B numbers and commodity

descriptions for these years were typed into the concordance from

the annual source:



U.S. Foreign Trade, Exports, Commodity by Country, FT410, Bureau of the

Census, Washington, D.C., 1972-1977.



The SIC and Rev. 1 SITC numbers corresponding to the 1972-1977 TSUSA

numbers were obtained from:



U.S. Foreign Trade Statistics. Classifications and Cross-Classifications,

1974. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census,

December 1975.