*** TSUSA Imports, Commodity by Country, 1972-1988 ***



Description:



For years up until 1988, imports to the United States at a disaggregate

level were measured according to the Tariff Schedule of the United States

Annotated (TSUSA) classification.  These datafiles contain the U.S.

import data according to TSUSA number, distinguished by source country,

and including both quantitative information about imports and descriptive

information about each commodity.



The files IMPYR_1.ASC, IMPYR_2.ASC AND IMPYR_3.ASC contain U.S.import

data for 1972-1988, sorted by TSUSA number, with YR = {a two digit number

in the range 72-88}.  The first of these files, IMPYR_1.ASC, includes

commodities with a TSUSA number beginning with 1-3; the second,

IMPYR_2.ASC, contains those commodities with a  TSUSA number beginning

with 4-6; and the third, IMPYR_3.ASC, contains those commodities with a

TSUSA number beginning with 7-9.



Record Layout:



The variables included in IMP*.ASC are:



columns 1-7	-  TSUSA number

columns 9-14	-  Source Country Code

                   United Nations country codes are used (see COUNTRY.TXT)

column 16-23	-  Country name

column 25	-  Source Country Sub-Code, which are defined as follows:

                   	0 = Country of Origin

                   	1 = Country of Shipment

                        2 = 807 Commodity

                        3 = 806 Commodity

                        4 = Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Item

                        5 = Folklore Merchandise

                        9 = Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) Item

                        I = Israel Preference Commodity

                        T = 807 commodity in CBI country

columns 27-31	-  Revision 2 SITC number (5-digit)

columns 33-40	-  1972 import-based SIC number (8-digit)

columns 42-49	-  1987 import-based SIC number (8-digit)

columns 51-53	-  Units for quantity (see UNIT7288.TXT)

columns 55-66	-  Quantity

columns 68-79	-  Customs value (dollars)

                   Customs value does not include freight, and is the value

		   on which duties are assessed.  It is intended to serve

		   as an arm's-length transactions value for the commodity.

		   It is similar to the FAS (free alongside ship) value,

		   which was collected by Census prior to 1982.

columns 81-92 	-  CIF value (dollars).  CIF (cost including freight)

		   includes freight but not tariff duties.

columns 94-105 	-  Duties paid (dollars)

                   This variable is estimated by U.S. Customs.

columns 107-170	-  Description of the TSUSA commodity

columns 172-173	-  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 Customs value or CIF value.  In other cases, a zero value for

Quantity and also the Customs and CIF values indicates that the good

was not imported from that country in that year.



For 1972 and 1973, the CIF value and Duties paid are missing, as indicated

by a dot.  Duties paid are also missing for a very small number of

TSUSA commodities in other years.



In some years, the Units of quantity have been imputed based on the

units used for the same commodity in other years.



For 1972-1977, the SITC Rev. 2 codes have been imputed using information

on:  (a) the SITC Rev. 2 codes used for a like-named TSUSA commodity in

later years; or (b)  the SITC Rev. 1 code used for that commodity, and the

concordance SITCR1_2.ASC between Rev. 1 and Rev. 2.  In a very small number

of cases, the Rev. 2 SITC number is missing, as indicated by a blank.



The 1987 SIC numbers contain a number of cases where "Z" is used

to indicate that the classification is not known.  For example,

"23ZZZZZZ" indicates that the commodity belongs to the 2-digit

SIC category 23, but more precise information is not available.



Special Considerations:



The 1972 and 1987 import-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 processing

that occurs in them, whereas the method of processing is not known for

imports.  As a result, a condensed set of SIC numbers called "import-

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



Related Files:



A complete list of the commodities, including the TSUSA number for each,

1972 and 1987 import-based SIC numbers, Revision 2 SITC number (5-digit),

and the first and last years that the TSUSA number is used for that

commodity, is contained in the concordance CON72-88.ASC, which is

described in CON72_88.TXT.



The source country for each imported 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.	



There is a cross-reference between the Tariff Schedule of the United

States Annotated (TSUSA) codes that are used in the 1972-1988 import

files, and the Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) numbers that are

used in the 1989-1994 import files, and.  This cross-reference is

contained in HS_TSUSA.ASC and described in HS_TSUSA.TXT.



Size:  Each file IMP*.ASC is between 5 and 15 megabytes.



Sources:



The data for 1972-1988 were obtained from:



National Archives and Record Administration, Annual Import Databank,

IA245, Record group 29, Washington, D.C. [magnetic tapes], 1972-1988.



The same data are reported in printed form in:



U.S. Imports for Consumption and General Imports, TSUSA Commodity

by Country of Origin, FT246, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C.,

1972-1988.



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.