Appendix B of 2001 ATPA Report

A. IMPORT STATISTICS

Data used in this report were compiled by the Bureau of the Census and obtained from data on IA-245 yearly computer tapes from the Foreign Trade Division of the Census Bureau. The statistics on U.S. imports used in this report have been compiled in terms of "Imports for Consumption." Imports for consumption are a combination of entries for immediate consumption, withdrawals from warehouses for consumption and entries of merchandise into U.S. Customs territory from U.S. Foreign Trade Zones, thus generally reflecting the total of the commodities entered into U.S. consumption channels. The value of imports used in this report is the customs value which 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.

The information for "Dutiable Value" represents, in general, the Customs value of foreign merchandise imported into the United States which is subject to duty. The data for "Calculated Duty" represent the estimated import duties using the applicable rate(s) of duty as shown in the Tariff Schedules of the United States Annotated. However, these estimates do not necessarily reflect the actual amounts of duty paid and should, therefore, be used with caution.

Import data were initially reported in terms of the Harmonized Tariff Schedules of the United States Annotated (HTSUS). This is an official publications of the U.S. International Trade Commission, embracing the legal text of the Tariff Schedules of the United States together with statistical annotations.

In order to achieve more meaningful economic aggregates, in this report, the import data are rearranged and presented in terms of totals for product groupings based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). This rearrangement of the import data into a structure related to the origin of production should facilitate the comparison of the U.S. import statistics on a commodity basis with other data related to the domestic economy. The HTSUS data are allocated to SIC groupings based on the 1987 SIC definitions. The concordance between the HTSUS and 1987 SIC comes from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Because of a significant revision in the 1987 SIC for 1999, and a desire to make meaningful comparisons between data for 1999, 2000 and previous years, the 1998 version of the SIC/HTSUS concordance was applied to the 1999 and 2000 HTSUS data.

The country reported in the statistics as the country of origin is defined as the country where the merchandise was grown, mined, or manufactured. In instances where the country of origin cannot be determined, the transactions are credited to the country of shipment. For statistical reporting purposes, some country data are combined and not reported individually.

Import statistics are fully compiled on shipments valued over $1,250 except for articles which must be reported on formal entries when valued over $250. Value data for shipments valued under $1,251 (under $251 where applicable) are estimated for individual countries using factors based on the ratios of low-valued shipments to individual country totals. These estimates are shown separately as "Shipments Under $1,251 (Estimated)" and are included in the overall import total, world area and country totals, but are not included in other section totals nor in the data for individual commodity classifications. Therefore, the statistics for the individual commodity classifications are undercounted due to the exclusion of data for shipments valued under $1,251. Under the SIC-based classification, these items are included in SIC-based import code 99.

Data on U.S. imports under the HTS 9802 program were obtained from tapes produced by the Division of Foreign Trade of the Census Bureau.

B. EXPORT STATISTICS

The official U.S. export statistics are compiled by the Bureau of the Census primarily from copies of Shipper's Export Declarations. Data used in this report were compiled from yearly EA-645 computer tapes and obtained from the Foreign Trade Division of the Census Bureau. Exports of domestic merchandise include commodities which are grown, produced, or manufactured in the United States, and commodities of foreign origin which have been changed in the United States, including U.S. Foreign Trade Zones, from the form in which they were imported, or which have been enhanced in value by further manufacture in the United States.

The value of exports used in this report is the f.a.s. (free alongside ship) value at the U.S. port of export, based on the transaction price, including inland freight, insurance and other charges incurred in placing the merchandise alongside the carrier at the U.S. port of exportation.

Exports commodity information was collected in terms of the commodity classifications in the Schedule B, Statistical Classification of Domestic and Foreign Commodities Exported from the United States. Schedule B is a U.S. Bureau of the Census publication and is based on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (Harmonized System).

In addition, this report contains Schedule B data arranged and summarized into product groupings based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. This arrangement of the export data into a structure related to the origin of production should facilitate the comparison of data on U.S. exports with other data related to the domestic economy. Data use the 1987 SIC definitions; the concordance between the 1987 SIC and the Harmonized System Schedule B comes from the U.S Bureau of the Census. Because of a significant revision in the 1987 SIC for 1999, and a desire to make meaningful comparisons between data for 1999, 2000 and previous years, the 1998 version of the SIC/Schedule B concordance was applied to the 1999 and 2000 Schedule B data.

The country of destination is defined as the country of ultimate destination or the country where the goods are to be consumed, further processed, or manufactured, as known to the shipper at the time of exportation. For statistical reporting purposes, some country data are combined and are not reported individually.

For exports to all countries, data for shipments valued under $2,501 are estimated, based on established percentages of individual country totals. The estimated data for shipments valued under $2,501 are shown as "Low-Value Shipments." Under the SIC-based classification, these items are included in SIC 3X.

C. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Additional information on the coverage, concepts, and collection methods of U.S. trade statistics is available in U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Merchandise Trade, Report FT-900, monthly, and Guide to Foreign Trade Statistics, 1995. The trade data used in this report are available, for a fee, from the Foreign Trade Division of the U.S. Census Bureau.

A. COVERAGE AND SOURCES

Detailed industry statistics on the nation's mining and manufacturing payroll employment used in this report are based upon the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Manual. All industry statistics for the periods after March 1999, the present benchmark date, are subject to revision. Revised figures will be issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) when the series are adjusted to new benchmark levels in 2001. The data in this report incorporate the one-time historical correction to the April 1981 to February 1991 data, see "BLS Establishment Estimates Revised to Incorporate March 1992 Benchmarks and Historical Corrections," in Employment and Earnings, Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 1993. The data also include the one-time historical revision of the 1988-94 data (released in May 1997) for the service sectors included in SICs 421, 451, and 473; the adjustment in these sectors also affected the more aggregated categories in Table 19 such as Total nonfarm, Service-producing, and Transportation and public utilities (see "BLS Establishment Estimates Revised to Incorporate March 1996 Benchmarks" by Patricia Getz, Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Monthly data from business establishments on employment, hours, and earnings are collected by BLS in its Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey. Data include all full- and part-time employees who worked during, or received pay for, the pay period that includes the l2th of the month. The data exclude proprietors, the self-employed, and unpaid volunteer or family workers. Salaried officers of corporations are included. Persons on establishment payrolls who are on paid sick leave (when pay is received directly from the firm), on paid holiday or paid vacation, or who work during a part of the pay period even though they are unemployed or on strike during the rest of the period, are counted as employed. Not counted as employed are persons who are laid off, on leave without pay, or on strike for the entire period, or who are hired but have not been paid during the period. For further details on collection methods, concepts, estimating methods, and the sample, see Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment, Hours, and Earnings: United States 1909-90, Bulletin 2370 (1991), Manual on Series Available and Estimating Methods, BLS Current Employment Statistics Program March 1993 (1994), and BLS Handbook of Methods, Chapter 2, Bulletin 2285 (1988).

B. RELIABILITY OF EMPLOYMENT ESTIMATES

The sample estimates derived from the establishment survey may differ from the figures that would have been obtained if it were possible to take a complete census using the same schedules and procedures. The relatively large size of the BLS establishment sample assures a high degree of accuracy. However, to remove errors which might have accumulated, the estimates are usually adjusted annually to new benchmarks (comprehensive counts of employment) to correct for sampling variability, response errors, and changes in industrial activity of establishments.

III. DESIGNATION OF ATPA-ELIGIBLE PRODUCTS IN THE TARIFF SCHEDULES OF THE UNITED STATES ANNOTATED

For statistical purposes, 8-digit HTSUSA tariff line items are annotated with two additional suffix digits to provide additional import product detail. In the 2000 edition of the HTSUSA, each 8-digit HTSUSA number in the tariff schedules fell into one of the following product-eligibility groups:

1. Eligible: all articles within the 8-digit HTSUSA were eligible for ATPA duty-free treatment (Free (J));
2. Possibly Eligible: some articles within the 8-digit HTSUSA were eligible for ATPA duty-free treatment (Free (J*));
3. Eligible for Reduced Duties: all articles within the 8-digit HTSUS were eligible for reduced duties (a duty rate (J));
4. Not Eligible: no articles within the 8-digit HTSUSA were eligible for ATPA duty-free treatment. (a duty rate);
5. Eligible for MFN-free (now NTR-free) treatment (Free).

Articles which fall in class 2 include those categories of items excluded from eligibility which may contain items which may be eligible if they do not meet exclusion criteria of material-content or product-specification given in the headnote to the tariff schedules.

In a few cases HTS product eligibility is set at the 10-digit level rather than the 8-digit level such as metal ores in HTS chapter 26.

The product eligibility for each HTS item was obtained from the each year's version of the U.S. Customs Harmonized System Tape. This data source incorrectly specifies the product eligibility for items in which the product eligibility varies at the 10-digit level within an 8-digit heading. Corrections to the Census Tape have been made for the analysis in this report.

IV. STATISTICAL REPORTING DISCREPANCIES UNDER THE ATPA AND ADJUSTMENTS MADE TO REPORTED CENSUS IMPORT DATA

A. CENSUS EDIT CHECKS OF THE IMPORT DATA

The U.S. Bureau of Census compiles the official import statistics from the customs documents and performs various statistical edits to ensure proper reporting. In the first years of operation of the ATPA there were cases of misreporting of imports. Some of the discrepancies arose from the newness of the program while others resulted from the lack of statistical edit checks.

The Census Bureau conducts edit checks for country and product eligibility for ATPA and GSP. A few items continue to be misreported because the Census applies the HTS product eligibility at the 8-digit level to all 10 digit numbers under that 8-digit item; there are several cases (such as metal ores in HTS chapter 26), however, where product eligibility varies among the 10-digit items within a 8-digit HTS category. The correct 10-digit product eligibility information has been used in this report to further check for instances of misreporting.

B. ADJUSTMENTS TO REPORTED CENSUS IMPORT DATA

Several adjustments to the officially reported import data have been made in the tables in this report which affect the dutiable value, calculated duty, ATPA duty-free, GSP duty-free, and HTSUS 9802.00.80 values. The adjustments were made in an attempt to correct for misreporting mentioned above. The adjustments as they affect the reported ATPA, GSP, and HTSUS 9802.00.80 duty-free entries are summarized in the Appendix Table which presents reported U.S. imports by ATPA product eligibility class and reported duty treatment.

Before 1993, in the official Census import data tapes, the dutiable value reported for HTSUS 9802.00.80 (TSUS 807.00) items was the customs value and did not reflect the subtraction of U.S.-content value which was not subject to duty. To account for this over-valuation of these items, special tapes prepared by the Census Bureau for the U.S. International Trade Commission were used which presented the total customs value and the U.S.-content value for each 9802 imported item. Adjusted dutiable value figures were derived by subtracting U.S.-content value from the total customs value for each tariff item imported under HTSUS 9802.00.80. Beginning in 1993, Census began to make this adjustment.

The figure for calculated duty in the official import statistics is calculated by applying a duty rate to the dutiable value. It does not reflect actual custom duties paid. To the extent that HTSUS 9802.00.80 items' dutiable value is overstated, so will calculated duties for these items. Adjusted calculated duties were calculated by multiplying the adjusted dutiable value (discussed above) times the ad valorem equivalent (calculated duty over dutiable value) for each tariff item which entered under the HTSUS 9802.00.80 provision.

Items are considered as ATPA-free if they were reported in the official Census import statistics as entering under the ATPA (primary special program indicator of "J" in the IA245 data) with no dutiable value (i.e., rate provision codes starting with "1"). Several items were reported as ATPA-free but later had their eligibility for duty-free treatment revoked retroactively (see endnote 2); these items still appear in the official Census statistics as ATPA-free entries but are not considered as ATPA-free in this report.

Any MFN-free items that were not corrected by Census edit checks and were reported as GSP-free or ATPA-free are considered MFN-free in this report.

Imports of several MFN duty-free items were reported under the HTSUS 9802.00.80 provision; these values were excluded from the 9802.00.80 total discussed in the text and tables of this report. In addition, on the Customs Declaration, some items are entered under both the 9802 provision and either the ATPA or GSP. Ultimately the item will enter under only one of these programs but the trade statistics of the U.S. Census do not reflect this. In this report, for items entering under two provisions, it is assumed that the item actually entered under the ATPA or GSP. However, for entries where the item was not eligible for ATPA or GSP, then the item was assumed to enter under the 9802 provision. Generally, in this report, where there is ambiguity over which program an item was entered under, the more generous (i.e., lower duty) program is assumed. In several cases, the stated "rate provision code" is logically inconsistent with the primary "country sub code"; in these cases the product eligibility status of the item has been used to determine which of these two codes is most likely to be correct; for example a rate provision code of "61" is inconsistent with a country sub code of "J".