UNCTAD TRAINS - Non-Tariff Measures

About
- How to
- What is new
- Glossary
  - I-TIP Definitions
    
    I-TIP
    
    Integrated Trade Intelligence Portal
    
    IN FORCE DATE
    
    The date when the measure is put in force, in I-TIP, is well known for trade defence measures (Antidumping, Countervailing, and Safeguards measures); in contrast, it may or may not be notified for SPS and TBT. The measures in agriculture (SSG, TRQ, XS, AMS) are defined in annual periods and here we use the start and the end of the year as in-force date and withdrawal date, respectively.
    
    WITHDRAWAL DATE
  - Intnl.Trade Concepts
    
    Non-tariff measures (NTMs)
    
    Non-tariff measures (NTMs) are policy measures — other than ordinary customs tariffs — that can potentially have an economic effect on international trade in goods, changing quantities traded, or prices or both. Each measure is classified by an NTM code from the UNCTAD Classification of Non-Tariff Measures and has an imposing country, an in-force date, affected countries, affected products, and may have a withdrawn date.
    
    Trade defence measures
    
    There are three types of measures grouped under this name: Antidumping, Countervailing, and Safeguards.
    
    UNCTAD
    
    UNCTAD is the principal United Nations body dealing with international trade, investment, and development issues. The primary objective of UNCTAD is to formulate policies relating to all aspects of development including trade, aid, transport, finance and technology. The conference ordinarily meets once in four years; the permanent secretariat is in Geneva.
  - Acronyms
    
    SPS
    
    Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures
    
    TBT
    
    Technical Barriers to Trade
    
    TDF
  - HS Glossary
    
    CHAPTER (HS)
    
    Two-digit category of Harmonized System classification, covering 96 Chapters. Codes "98", "99", and "00" are optional for country use.
    
    HEADING (HS)
    
    Four-digit category of Harmonized System classification. Each Heading has a complete description. The HS system has about 1241Headings since 2002.
    
    HS
    
    Harmonized System of codification and classification of merchandises: Known generally as Harmoized System (HS), this system is kept by the WCO, World Customs Organizations. This classification is designed to be used by customs administrations in external trade matters. It is now applied by almost all countries in the world. The classification was launched in 1988 and is updated each five years: the first revision is called HS-1992; second revision HS-1996; third revision HS-2002; fourth HS-2007; and the fifth is HS-2012. It is a multi-level classification whose most detailed level is six digits with more than five thousand items at this level, called "Subheadings". They are grouped into Headings (1241 items coded at 4 digits) and Chapters (96 items coded at 2 digits). There are also 21 Sections; Sections are not represented in the HS codification. See methodology for the particularities on how the HS and its different versions are used in I-TIP.
    
    SECTION (HS)
    
    Broadest Harmonized System category. The Harmonized System comprises 21 "Sections".
    
    SUBHEADING (HS)
    
    Most detailed international level of the Harmonized System (HS) classification, defined at six digits. In HS version 2012, there are 5205 Subheadings at six digits.
    
    TARIFF LINE
    
    Product classification level applied by countries. It goes deeper than the 6-digit common level of HS. In some cases, it has 12 digits.
- Methodology
- Map of the application
- Classifications used in the application
  - HS - Harmonized System
  - NTM - Non-Tariff Measures, interagency classification

NTMs TRAINS researcher file

You can download here the NTMs TRAINS researcher file for use in Stata (version 12) containing all non-tariff measures aggregated at the HS 6-digit level by researchers and data analysts. You will also find a file with the names and country codes to expand the data to a fully bilateral structure. The data can easily be used for descriptive statistics as well as for quantitative analysis by merging the file for instance with trade and other datasets.

The data collection follows a standardized and globally coherent approach described in the UNCTAD Guidelines to Collect Data on Non-Tariff Measures. However, the different regulatory practices in each country complicate cross-country comparisons. The UNCTAD TRAINS User Guide provides more information. Furthermore, the highest quality control standards are applied but collecting and classifying NTMs is a very complex exercise so that errors can occur.

Get the data

Please refer to the database as "UNCTAD (2017), TRAINS NTMs: The Global Database on Non-Tariff Measures".