*** Harmonized System Imports, Commodity by Country, 1989-2001 ***



Description:



In 1989 and later years, the Harmonized System of commodity classification

has been used to measure disaggregate U.S. imports and exports.  The

particular application of the Harmonized System to U.S. imports is

called the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS).  These datafiles contains the

U.S. import data according to HTS 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 1989-2001, sorted by HTS numbers, with YR = {a two digit number

in the range 89-01}.  The first of these files, IMPYR_1.ASC, includes

commodities with a HTS number beginning with the digits 0-4; the second,

IMPYR_2.ASC, contains those includes commodities with an HTS number

beginning with 5-7; and the third, IMPYR_3.ASC, includes those

commodities with a HTS number beginning with 8 or 9.



Record Layout:



The variables included in IMP*.ASC are:



columns 1-10    -  Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) number

columns 12-17   -  Source country code

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

columns 19-26   -  Country name

column 28       -  Country Sub-Code

                        0 = Country of Origin

                        1 = Country of Shipment

                        4 = Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Item

                        9 = Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) Item

                        B = Automotive Products Trade Act (APTA)

                        C = Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft

			D = Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (from 2001)

                        I = US-Israel Free Trade Agreement

                        J = Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) (from 1992)

			K = Agreement on Trade in Pharmaceutical Products (from 1995)

			L = Uruguay Round Concessions on Chemicals for Dyes (from 1995)

			N = Israeli-Jordanian Qualifying Industrial Zones (from 1999)

			R = US-Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (from 2000)

                        W = CBI Item (occurs very rarely, may be a misclassification)

                        X = Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (1989-1993)

                        Y = North America Free Trade Agreement (from 1994)

                        Z = Compact of Free Association Act

columns 30-33   -  1987 version import-based SIC number (4-digit)

columns 35-39   -  Revision 2 SITC number (5 digit)

columns 41-45   -  Revision 3 SITC number (5 digit)

columns 47-52   -  North American Classification System (NAICS) code (6-digit)

columns 54-56   -  Units of quantity (see UNIT8901.TXT)

columns 58-69   -  Quantity, Imports for Consumption

columns 71-82   -  Quantity, General Imports

columns 84-95   -  Customs Value, Imports for Consumption (dollars)

		   (Customs value and Imports for Consumption are defined below)

columns 97-108  -  Customs Value, General Imports (dollars)

		   (Customs value and General Imports are defined below)

columns 110-121 -  Dutiable Value (dollars)

columns 123-133 -  Calculated Duties (dollars)

		   (The dutiable value and calculated duties are defined below)

columns 135-145 -  Import Charges, Imports for Consumption (dollars)

		   (Import charges equal freight plus insurance, as defined below)           

columns 147-196 -  Commodity description

                   (50 character short description from CONIMP89_01.ASC)

columns 198-200 -  Year (89 – 101)







Missing 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 consumption or general value.  In other cases, a zero value for

Quantity and also for the consumption and general values indicates that the

commodity was not imported from that country in that year.



The variable "dutiable value" is missing for 1989, which is indicated by

a period.



Variable Definitions:



1. Customs Import Value.  The Customs value reflects the value of imports as

appraised by the U.S. Customs Service.  This value is generally

defined as the price actually paid or payable for merchandise when sold for

exportation to the United States, excluding U.S. import duties, freight,

insurance and other charges incurred in bringing the merchandise to the

United States.



2.  Imports for Consumption.  Imports for Consumption measure the total of 

merchandise that has physically cleared through Customs either entering 

consumption channels immediately or entering after withdrawal for consumption 

from bonded warehouses under Customs custody or from Foreign Trade Zones.

Many countries use the term "special imports" to designate statistics 

compiled on this basis.



3.  General Imports.  General Imports measure the total physical arrivals 

of merchandise from foreign countries, whether such merchandise enters

consumption channels immediately or is entered into bonded warehouses

or Foreign Trade Zones under Customs custody.



4. Dutiable Value of Imports and Calculated Duty.  The dutiable value

represents in general, the Customs value of foreign merchandise imported into

the United States which is subject to duty.  The calculated duty

represents the estimated duty collected.  Estimated data are calculated by

the Census based on the applicable rate(s) of duty as shown in the HTS.     



5.  Import Charges.  The import charges represent the aggregate cost of all

freight, insurance and other charges (excluding import duties) incurred in

bringing the merchandise from alongside the carrier at the port of

exportation and placing it alongside the carrier at the first port of entry

in the United States.  The sum of the Customs value and the charges is the c.i.f. 

(cost, insurance and freight) value. 

 

6.  The "import-based SIC" (MSIC) codes reported in these files differ from

the true "domestic based" SIC numbers, as discussed in the main text of

the documentation.



7.  The NAICS codes were reported by the U.S. Census beginning in 2000.

For earlier years, these codes have been imputed based on the

commodities with similar descriptions, or SIC, SITC, or End use

classifications.





Related Files:



1. A complete list of the commodities, including the HTS number for each,

1987 import-based SIC numbers (4-digit), Rev. 3 SITC number (5-digit),

ENDUSE classification, NAICS classification, units of quantity,

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

commodity, is contained in the concordance CONIMP89_01.ASC, which is

described in CONIMP89_01.TXT.



2. The source country for each imported commodity is identified by a

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.



3. There is a cross-reference between the Harmonized Tariff System

(HTS)  numbers that are used in the 1989-1994 import files, and the

Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated (TSUSA) codes that

are used in the 1972-1988 import files.  This cross-reference is

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





Size:  Each file IMP*.ASC is between 11 and 20 megabytes.



Sources:



The data for 1989 was obtained from:



National Archives and Record Administration, Annual Import Databank,

IA245, Record group 29, Washington, D.C. [magnetic tape], 1989.



U.S. Exports History and U.S. Imports History, Historical Summary 1989-1992,

on CD-ROM [machine-readable data file], prepared by the Bureau of the Census.

Washington: The Bureau [producer and distributor], 1993.



Data for 1990 and later years were obtained from:



U.S. Exports and Imports of Merchandise on CD-ROM [machine-readable data file],

prepared by the Bureau of the Census. Washington: The Bureau

[producer and distributor], 1990-2001.



The same data in printed form are reported in:



U.S. Imports for Consumption, HTSUSA Commodity by Country of Origin,

FT247, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C., 1989-2001.





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., 1991.



Web:    http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/index.html

        http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/schedules.html#C

	http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/guide/index.html