Agricultural exports
This uses the standard WTO7 definition for agriculture. Products include HS codes 1–24 inclusive, with the exception of HS 03 and some of HS 16 (processed fish). It also includes casein, hides and skins, and raw wool.
CIF
Cost, insurance, freight – the market value (or FOB equivalent) of the imported goods plus the cost of freight and insurance from the source to destination.
Confidential classifications
Traders may ask, for commercial reasons, Statistics New Zealand to suppress details of their imports or exports for up to 12 months. A value for all ‘confidential’ trade now appears
under catch-all HS 98. Through to April 2002, ‘confidential’ was included in HS 9707, but was subsequently placed in HS 98. Examples of exports currently classified as confidential include methanol, coal, wood pulp, clay, sphagnum moss, mushrooms and some iron and steel products. A full list of the goods classified under this heading is available on the Statistics NZ website (http://www.stats.govt.nz/). The value of ‘confidential’ trade is considerable – exports of $995 million (including re-exports of $12 million) and imports of $120 million for the June 2004 year.
FOB
Free on board – the value of the goods delivered to the port of export and loaded onto a vessel for transportation out of the country of origin. Used for exported goods.
Government services nie
These comprise transactions of central government, the central bank and local government. Both New Zealand government and foreign government transactions are recorded.
Insurance
Insurance and re-insurance of all types, including freight insurance. The values recorded alongside insurance measure the value of insurance services provided by an economy to non-residents (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade [MFAT] ‘exports’ series or, in Balance of Payments [BoP] terms, the credit item) and the value of insurance services purchased by residents from non-residents’ insurers (the MFAT ‘imports’ series, or BoP debits item). Insurance services is measured by multiplying the total amount of insurance premiums exported or imported by the five-year average domestic service charge ratio. The latter is the ratio of the domestic insurance service charge to total domestic premiums when the service charge is calculated as premiums minus claims.
Merchandise goods
Tangible, moveable goods crossing the customs frontier.
nes
Not elsewhere specified.
Non-agricultural exports
This uses the standard WTO definition. Non-agricultural exports are comprised of all other exports not included in agricultural exports.
Non-merchandise goods
Goods returned after repair or modifi cation in New Zealand; goods on short-term loan or lease; and service transactions, eg computer data tapes and drawings.
Other
This item covers those international service transactions not covered under the travel, transportation, insurance or government services nie items. They include communication services, construction services, financial services, computer and information services, royalties and licence fees, personal, cultural and recreational services, and other business services. Other business services includes merchanting, and other business, technical and professional services.
Provisional data
Readers may also note that the June and December editions of this publication differ, reflecting the availability of data sourced from Statistics NZ. Care must be taken to clarify whether import data is CIF or VFD, and whether export data includes re-exports or not. Re-exports are not included in this publication unless specifically stated. The most recent data is provisional and subject to revisions. Note also that Statistics NZ releases import data some three weeks before the provisional export data is released, but an estimate of the provisional export data is given at the time of the import data release. MFAT waits until ‘final provisional’ export data is released rather than using the earlier estimate, as there may be several changes at a more detailed level.
Re-exports
This data records goods brought into New Zealand and exported without a ‘substantial transformation’. Although not a hard and fast rule, 50 percent value added is used as a yardstick to measure ‘substantial transformation’; above that level, the goods are classified as domestic exports. Transshipment goods are not included. Goods that are re-exported will have previously figured in some form in the import statistics. Re-exports are not included in the general tables of this publication, and therefore underestimate the total trade in some cases.
Services
Items that are generally intangible or not physically moveable (eg export education and tourism).
Transportation
Transportation measures the value of transactions in transportation services between residents of different economies. Transportation services are those services provided through carriers (such as ships and aircraft) by their operators, and the goods and services consumed by carriers in the course of their operations. By international convention, exports are foreigners carried by a New Zealand carrier, either here or overseas. Imports are New Zealanders carried by a foreign carrier. New Zealanders carried by a domestic carrier (either here or overseas) constitute a domestic transaction and are not part of international trade.
The types of services provided through carriers include the carriage of freight (exports and imports) and passengers. Other transportation services covered include the charter of carriers, and airport and harbour fees. Goods consumed by carriers in the course of their operations, including bunkering and provisioning, are recorded under merchandise goods.
Travel
Travel covers the goods and services acquired from an economy by individuals defined as travellers during their stay in that economy. The international carriage of travellers is not included here but is classified as transportation.
VFD
Value for duty – the market value of imported goods as used for Customs’ valuation purposes for tariff assessment in New Zealand.
Additional notes
The merchandise trade statistics are incompatible with the services data. Services data is collected and collated by Statistics NZ in line with the principles set by the IMF for BoP data. These principles also have methodology for the collation and presentation of goods data that differs from that of the merchandise goods data used above. The key point is that one should not add the merchandise trade figures to services in order to obtain an overview of ‘goods and services trade’. Instead, readers are referred to the full BoP series, which adjust merchandise goods values according to the principles set down by the IMF. In particular, the value of imported goods is adjusted to a FOB-equivalent basis in BoP statistics, but not in merchandise trade series. Further information on BoP concepts and methods is available from Statistics NZ.
|