WTO Issues New Edition of Trade Profiles

<Trade Profile>

[ABS News Service/01.11.2023]

The WTO issued on 31 October the 2023 edition of Trade Profiles, an annual publication providing key data on merchandise trade and trade in commercial services for 197 economies. Each two-page profile provides a breakdown of the economy’s major exports and imports and its main trading partners.

For merchandise trade, top exports and imports are broken down by agricultural and non-agricultural categories. For trade in services, data is provided for transport, travel and other commercial services. Statistics on intellectual property, such as patent and trademark applications, are also provided.

The profiles are available for all WTO members and observers as well as for other selected economies, providing a concise overview of global trade.

Trade Profiles contain detailed information on merchandise trade flows, including top products traded by each economy, an expanded section on trade in commercial services, as well as statistics on intellectual property. The information, available for WTO Members, Observers, and other selected economies, is derived from multiple domains, such as customs statistics, national accounts, Balance of Payments statistics, Foreign AffiliaTes Statistics (FATS), and industrial property statistics. Data are sourced from WTO Secretariat and external sources and presented in standardized and visualized format for quick reference.

I. The first section provides a snapshot of the importance of trade in the economy - GDP, GDP per capita, current account balance (% of GDP), trade per capita, trade (% GDP), as well as the economy’s ranking in world merchandise trade and trade in commercial services.

II. The second section is dedicated to Merchandise Trade indicators (customs-based statistics) - information on total trade flows broken down by broad product category and major origins and destinations. This section provides statistics on top exported and imported agricultural and nonagricultural products at the HS 4-digit level according to the definitions of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and WTO Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA products).

III. The third section deals with Trade in Commercial Services - information on total trade flows (Balance of Payments based statistics) broken down by main service item and major origins and destinations. It also contains information on inward and outward FATS sales. This section provides detailed trade statistics for Transport, including its breakdown by mode of transport, Travel, Other commercial services and Goodsrelated services.

IV. The fourth and last section covers Industrial Property Indicators - annual number of applications for patents, trademarks, and industrial designs in the name of residents and non-residents of the reporting economy.