*** U.S. Exports, Schedule B by Country, 1978-1988 ***



Description:



For 1978-1988, exports to the United States at a disaggregate level

were measured according to the Schedule B classification.  These

datafiles contain the U.S. export data according to Schedule B number,

distinguished by destination country, and including both quantitative

information about exports and descriptive information about each commodity.



The files EXPYR_1.ASC, EXPYR_2.ASC, EXPYR_3.ASC and EXPYR_4.ASC contain U.S.

export data for 1978-1988, sorted by Schedule B number, with YR = {a two digit

number in the range 78-88}.  The first of these files, EXPYR_1.ASC, includes

commodities with a Sched. B number beginning with 0-3; the second,

EXPYR_2.ASC, contains those commodities with a Sched. B number beginning

with 4-5; the third, EXPYR_3.ASC, contains those commodities with a

Sched. B number beginning with 60-67; and the fourth, EXPYR_3.ASC, contains

those commodities with a Sched. B number beginning with 68-69 and 7-9.





Record Layout:



The variables included are:



columns 1-7     -  Schedule B number

columns 9-14    -  Country code

                    United Nations codes are used (see COUNTRY.TXT)

columns 16-23   -  Country name

columns 25-29   -  Revision 2 SITC number (5 digit)

columns 31-33   -  Revision 3 SITC number (3 digit)

columns 35-42   -  1972 export-based SIC number (8 digit)

columns 44-46   -  Units of quantity (see UNIT7288.TXT)

columns 48-58   -  Quantity

columns 60-69   -  Value of exports (dollars)

columns 71-98   -  Description of Schedule B commodity

columns 100-101 -  Year





Missing and Imputed Values:



Missing values for any alphabetic variable are indicated by a blank field,

as occurs especially for the Units of quantity, indicating that either the

units could not be measured, or were simply missing.  When the units could

not be measured, there will be a zero value for Quantity, but positive

entries for Value.



The Rev. 2 SITC numbers were missing for many of the commodities

with Schedule B numbers that were only used only in 1978.  These Rev. 2

SITC numbers have been imputed by using the first 5 digits of the

corresponding Schedule E number from CONEXP78_88.ASC, or by using the

description and SITC number for closely matched commodities.





Special Considerations:



The 1972 export-based SIC numbers are not the same as the SIC numbers

used to identify U.S. industries.  This is because industries in the

United States are sometimes defined in terms of the precessing that occurs

in them, whereas the method of processing may not be known to the

exporter.  As a result, a condensed set of SIC numbers called "export

based SIC" are used, and these are included in the EXP*.ASC files.



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

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

its full alphabetic description.





Related Files:



The file CONEXP78_88.ASC contains a complete list of the Schedule B numbers

for 1978-1988, along with various information about that commodity.



The source country for each exported commodity is identified by the

name and United Nations (UN) code.  The complete list of names and

UN codes, along with a correspondence to the country codes used by

the U.S. Census, is provided in COUNTRY.TXT.



For years after 1988, exported commodities are identified by the

Harmonized System (HS) numbers.  A concordance of these numbers

is contained in CONEXP89_94.ASC, as described in CONEXP89_94.TXT.

A cross-reference between the Schedule B and HS numbers is contained

in HS_SCH_B.ASC, as described in HS_SCH_B.TXT.



Size:  Each file EXP*.ASC is between 4 and 8 megabytes



Sources:



The data for 1978-1988 were obtained from:



National Archives and Record Administration, Annual Export Databank,

EA622, Record group 29, Washington, D.C. [magnetic tapes], 1978-1988.



The same data are reported in printed form in:



U.S. Exports, Schedule B, Commodity by Country, FT446, Bureau of the

Census, Washington, D.C., 1978-1988.



Additional information on the variables listed above can be obtained from:



Guide to Foreign Trade Statistics, Bureau of the Census, Department

of Commerce, Washington, D.C., 1983.