Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
The main objective of the trade in goods statistics by enterprise characteristics (TEC) is to bridge two major statistical domains which have traditionally been compiled and used separately, business statistics and international trade in goods statistics (ITGS). Specifically, this new domain was created to answer questions such as:
What kind of businesses are behind the trade flows of goods?
What is the contribution of a particular activity sector to trade?
What is the share of small and medium-sized enterprises to total trade?
What is the share of enterprises that trade with a certain partner country and the amount of trade value they account for?
For this purpose, the trade in goods between countries is broken down by economic activity, size-class of enterprises, trade concentration, geographical diversification and products traded. The new information is used to carry out more sophisticated kinds of analysis, e.g. to evaluate the role of European companies in the context of globalisation or to assess the impact of international trade in goods on employment, production and value added, essential in a globalised world where economies are increasingly interconnected.
Available datasets
TEC data are grouped into 10 datasets, each one focusing on a specific aspect:
Trade by activity sector and enterprise size class — Trade by activity sector and employment size class shows the contributions of economic activities and size classes (measured in terms of number of employees until 2021 and in term of number of employees and self-employed from 2022 reference year) to total trade. This allows the impact of international trade on employment to be analysed and the importance of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to be estimated.
Concentration of trade by activity — International trade being typically dominated by a few businesses, this indicator shows the share of the total trade accounted for by the top 5, 10, 20, etc. companies.
Trade by partner country and activity — Trade by partner country shows how many companies were trading with certain partner countries or country zones, and the value they accounted for. This indicator enables the most typical export or import markets to be identified.
Trade by number of partner countries and activity — Trade by number of partner countries shows how geographically diversified the export markets are. For imports, it shows the number of countries from which goods are imported.
Trade by commodity and activity — Trade by commodity and activity sector allocates the trade of each commodity to the activity of the trading enterprise. This indicator shows which sectors were involved in the trading of each product group.
Trade by type of trader — This indicator provides information on how traders are involved in international trade. It shows the number of companies trading within only one flow or in both flows and the trade value these companies account for.
Trade by type of ownership — The type of ownership is referring to the concept of control and to affiliation of an enterprise. It indicates whether an enterprise is domestically or foreign controlled and, if domestically controlled, whether it has affiliates abroad or not. This indicator can be used to analyse the impact of globalisation on international trade and to estimate the importance of multinational companies for trade.
Trade by export intensity — Export intensity categorises enterprises according to the importance of foreign markets in their sales. It refers to the share of exports in total turnover.
Trade by activity sector — In comparison with trade by activity and enterprise size class (first dataset), this indicator provides more details on the activity sector (2- or 3-digit level) but does not contain information about the enterprise size.
Trade by partner country and size class — This indicator aims to give insights into the internationalisation of small- and medium sized enterprises. It complements indicator 3 on trade by partner country and activity by applying the same detailed breakdown of partner countries but categorising enterprises by size class instead of activity sector.
3.2. Classification system
Classification of economic activities
Economic activities are classified according to the ‘statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community’ (NACE Rev. 2). NACE Rev. 2 is based on the fourth revision of the United Nations’ International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC Rev. 4). Within the international trade in goods statistics, the NACE classification refers to the economic activity of enterprises that are active in international trade in goods.
Product classification
As the TEC domain aims to categorise trade flows according to economic activities, product classifications which are based on the industrial origin of the goods are more suitable for analysis than classifications based on material of goods. For this reason, the Classification of Products by Activity (CPA) is used as the product classification in TEC. CPA is a European version of the United Nations’ Central Product Classification (CPC), but arranged so that each product heading is assignable to a single heading of the European activity classification, the NACE Rev. 2. CPA version 2008 is used for TEC data relating to the reference years 2012-2015. CPA version 2.1 is used since 2016 as reference year.
Country classification
Except for the cases listed below, the reporting and partner countries are classified according to the ‘Nomenclature of countries and territories for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States’, known as the ‘Geonomenclature’. An alpha-2 coding applies, which means that each country is identified with a two-letter alphabetical code. See the publication Geonomenclature applicable to European statistics on international trade in goods for more information. Exceptions: code CN_X_HK instead of CN for China (except Hong Kong); code UK instead of GB for United Kingdom; code EL instead of GR for Greece.
TEC data cover all activity sectors, from sections A to U of the NACE Rev. 2 classification.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Trade value
The value of traded goods is calculated at the national frontier, on a FOB basis (free on board) for exports and a CIF (cost, insurance, freight) basis for imports. Hence, only incidental expenses (freight, insurance) are included and they are incurred for:
exports in the part of the journey located on the territory of the country where the goods are exported from;
imports in the part of the journey located outside the territory of the country where the goods are imported to.
Number of enterprises
The number of enterprises consists of a count of the number of enterprises involved in trade during at least a part of the reference period. For intra-EU trade, VAT data are used to estimate the number of traders and trade value of the smallest traders which are exempted from Intrastat reporting. These traders account for a limited share of the trade value – at most 3 % of the total value of the intra-EU exports and 7 % of the total value of the intra-EU imports – but in terms of number of enterprises they consist of the majority.
Partner country
Trade flows are broken down by partner country.
For exports it is the country of destination of the goods. That is the last country to which it is known that, at the time of export, the goods are to be delivered.
For imports, the definition of the partner country differs between Intrastat and Extrastat. For extra-EU imports it is the country of origin of the goods; for intra-EU imports it is the country (EU Member State) of consignment of goods.
Product
The product is the outcome of economic activity and the generic term used for goods and services.
Product classifications are designed to categorise goods and services that have common characteristics. They provide the basis for preparing statistics on the production, consumption, international trade and distributive trade. However, the scope of TEC is limited to the trade in goods.
Economic activity
The economic activity consists in offering goods and services on a given market. An activity is characterised by an input of products, a production process and an output of products. In other words, an economic activity is said to take place when resources such as equipment, labour, manufacturing techniques, information networks or products are combined, leading to the creation of specific goods or services.
Classifications of economic activities are designed to categorise data that can be related to the unit of activity. They provide the basis for preparing statistics of output, the various inputs to the production process, capital formation and the financial transactions of such units. Economic activities are classified according to NACE, the classification used to classify economic entities (enterprises, local units and similar statistical units). Within the international trade statistics, the NACE classification refers to the economic activity of traders, i.e. enterprises that are active in international trade.
Number of employees and self employed persons
The number of employees refers to the number of those persons who work for an employer and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind. A worker is considered to be a wage or salary earner of a particular unit if he receives a wage or salary from the unit regardless of where the work is done (in or outside the production unit).
A self-employed person is the sole or joint owner of the unincorporated enterprise (one that has not been incorporated i.e. formed into a legal corporation) in which he/she works, unless they are also in paid employment which is their main activity (in that case, they are considered to be employees). Self-employed people also include:
unpaid family workers;
outworkers (who work outside the usual workplace, such as at home);
workers engaged in production done entirely for their own final use or own capital formation, either individually or collectively
Until reference year 2021 only the number of employees was used to determine enterprise size classes.
The number of employees is a mandatory variable to be recorded in the business registers for each enterprise and local unit. According to the Business Register Regulation, the intention is to use the situation at the end of the year. However, as the end date approach is not harmonised the annual average can also be used as reference.
Type of traders
In the context of the TEC data, the type of trader specifies the type of trade activity of the enterprise. It indicates whether the enterprise is involved only in exports or only imports or trade in both flows.
The type of trader aims to describe the heterogeneity of enterprises according to their involvement in trade.
Type of ownership
In the context of the TEC data, the type of ownership refers to the concept of control and to the affiliation of an enterprise. It indicates whether an enterprise is domestically or foreign controlled and if it is domestically controlled, whether it has affiliates abroad or not. In other words, the type of ownership refers to the delineation of enterprise groups and categorising them. In this context, the concept of control prevails as referred in article 3 (4) of the Business Register Regulation (EC) No 177/2008. This Regulation applies the European System of Accounts (ESA) definition for the control as set out in point 2.26 of Annex A to Regulation (EC) no 2223/96. The concept of control prevails also in the FATS Regulation and is defined as follows: "‘control’ shall mean the ability to determine the general policy of an enterprise by choosing appropriate directors, if necessary. In this context, enterprise A is deemed to be controlled by an institutional unit B when B controls, whether directly or indirectly, more than half of the shareholders’ voting power or more than half of the shares". This definition is consistent with the ESA definition.
The type of ownership aims to describe the heterogeneity of enterprises according to their global status. A distinction of enterprises into domestically and foreign controlled enterprises has specific interest because of the important role of foreign affiliates. Furthermore, if domestically controlled enterprises with own affiliates abroad are further distinguished from all domestically controlled enterprises, the population all of multinational enterprises can be identified.
Exports intensity
The exports intensity refers to the share of exports of turnover (ratio between exports and turnover).
Exports intensity categorises enterprises according to the importance of foreign markets in their sales. The recent developments in the area of global value chains have raised a question on the heterogeneity of enterprises. It has been traditionally assumed that enterprises in the same activity sector are homogenous in terms of their productivity as well as in generating value-added and employment. However, this may not be a valid assumption any more in the globalised economy as productivity, value-added and employment may depend on the international orientation of enterprises, i.e. their involvement and position in the global value chains. Enterprises with high exports intensity are often also large-scale importers.
3.5. Statistical unit
Enterprise
3.6. Statistical population
The statistical population should comprise all the enterprises involved in intra- and extra-EU trade flows. However, in practice, the linkage between the Trade Register and the Business Register is not systematically straightforward as there may be more complicated linkages or the linkage may not always provide expected outcomes. This relates in particular to the following cases:
Intra-annual business demography changes;
Large and complex businesses;
Incomplete business register data; and
VAT-groups.
The reference population used in the compilation of TEC datasets relates to traders who have reported trade transactions under a valid ID number and were successfully matched with the Business Register. This means that the enterprise characteristics reported in the TEC datasets refer only to a part of total trade.
In the case of Croatia,
are out of scope: missing, delayed and incomplete records for extra-EU trade.
are reported under unknown trade in TEC data:
Adjustments for missing trade (trade below threshold and non-response in intra-EU trade);
Trade carried out by non-resident traders as such traders cannot be associated to an enterprise via the national Business Register.
3.7. Reference area
Croatia.
3.8. Coverage - Time
TEC data disseminated by Eurostat
From 2012 as reference year.
TEC data disseminated at national level
From 2014 as reference year
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Trade value in thousands of euros
Number of enterprises
The reference period is the same as for monthly trade in goods statistics. It should be the calendar month of export respectively that of import of the goods. However, in practice the reference period is in general:
the calendar month during which the customs declaration is accepted by the national authorities for extra-EU trade; and
the calendar month during which VAT becomes chargeable on intra-EU acquisitions for intra-EU trade.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Legal acts and other agreements - EU level
General statistical legislation
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics
International trade in goods statistics legislation:
Up to 31 December 2021, ITGS are based on the following regulations:
Intra-EU trade legislation
Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council
Implementing Commission Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004
Extra-EU trade legislation
Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council
Implementing Commission Regulation (EC) No 92/2010
Implementing Commission Regulation (EC) No 113/2010
As of 1 January 2022, ITGS are based on the following regulations
Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1225 of 27 July 2021
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1704 of 14 July 2021
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/234 of 7 December 2020
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/235 of 8 February 2021
Business Registers legislation
Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common framework for Business Registers for statistical purposes
Implementing Commission Regulation (EC) No 192/2009
Implementing Commission Regulation (EU) No 1097/2010
Regulation (EU) No 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020
All regulations relevant for the European statistics on international tradRegulation (EU) No 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 e in goods can be consulted from the ‘Legislation’ page of the ‘International trade in goods’ section on Eurostat website. All legal texts are also accessible online on Eur-Lex.
Legal acts and other agreements - national level
the Annual Implementation Plan of Statistical Activities of the Republic of Croatia 2024 (NN, No. 29/25);
the Official Statistics Act (NN, Nos 25/20 and 155/23);
the Customs Administration Act (NN, Nos 68/13, 30/14, 115/16, 39/19, 98/19, 155/23 and 36/24);
the Act on the Implementation of the Customs Legislation of the European Union (NN, No. 40/16).
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
TEC data are submitted to Eurostat on a yearly basis and are available on Eurostat’s website.
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164) and Regulation (EU) 2024/3018 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2024 amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (OJ L 2024/3018) stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data as well as the Official Statistics Act (NN, Nos 25/20 and 155/23).
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Confidentiality principles applied for all official statistical data provided by Croatian Bureau of Statistics as well as Eurostat recommendations regarding confidentiality policy for TEC data.
See item 8.1 ‘Release calendar’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details.
This kind of information is available at the CBS' official website, by Calendar of Statistical Data Issues and by Publishing Programme.
TEC data disseminated by Eurostat
See item 8.3 ‘Release policy - user access’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details.
Statistics by enterprise characteristics are updated once a year with a new reference year. Historical data are exceptionally revised.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
No news release
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
TEC data disseminated at national level
Statistics in Line, available at the CBS' official website, comprises time series from 2014 afterwards.
TEC data disseminated by Eurostat
See item 10.2 ‘Dissemination format - Publications’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
TEC data disseminated at national level
Not available
TEC data disseminated by Eurostat
See item 10.3 ‘Dissemination format - online database’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not available.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
The Croatian Bureau of Statistics provides access to confidential statistical data to scientists and scientific organisation for carrying out scientific and research activities. The access to these data is regulated by provisions of the Ordinance on the Conditions and Terms of Using Confidential Data for Scientific Purposes (NN, No. 137/13), website and in line with the rules and in-house procedures aimed at ensuring the implementation of statistical confidentiality principle.
Applications for access to confidential data for scientific purposes can be submitted by the following applicants:
research entities – legal entities entered into the register of scientific organisations kept by a competent registry body in the Republic of Croatia in line with special laws, or legal entities included in a list of recognised research entities of the European Commission (Eurostat), which carry out statistical analyses for scientific purposes pursuant to specific EU laws
individual researchers – scientists entered into the register of scientists kept by a competent registry body in the Republic of Croatia pursuant to specific laws, who individually submits the application for access to the data for scientific purposes
Applications for access to confidential data for scientific purposes are considered by the Statistical Confidentiality Committee of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not available.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
TEC data disseminated at national level
Important methodological papers, summary documents and other important handbooks are considered to be internal documents of the CBS – used only internal, and the shorter version of methodology applied in production of TEC data is published along with the data set in question.
TEC data disseminated by Eurostat
See item 10.6 ‘Documentation on methodology’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
100%
10.7. Quality management - documentation
TEC data disseminated at national level
Not applicable
TEC data disseminated by Eurostat
See item 10.7 ‘Quality management - documentation’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
11.1. Quality assurance
In order to establish a comprehensive system of quality, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics applies the model of Total Quality Management, which also contains the Code of Practice of European Statistics. This model offers a possibility of continuous improvement for each business process. It focuses not only on products and services, but also on users and their satisfaction, the active participation of employees, long-term business success and social benefit. The communication is recognized as a key element of all statistical processes that affect the business success. (See the website)
11.2. Quality management - assessment
See item 11.2 ‘Quality management - assessment’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The main users are ministries and government bodies, Croatian Chamber of Economy, financial institutions (Croatian National Bank, commercial banks), economic analysts, the media, researches and students, entrepreneurs, international organisations (Eurostat, UNSD, IMF).
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
The first user satisfaction survey of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics was conducted in 2013, the second one in 2015, and the last one at the end of 2022.
See item 15.1 ‘Comparability - geographical’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data are comparable since 2014.
With the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union on July 1, 2013, CBS became obliged to prepare TEC data.
After the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union on 1 July 2013, data on foreign trade in goods statistics of the Republic of Croatia are acquired from two different sources:
the Intrastat form for statistics on trading in goods between EU Member States (Intrastat) and the customs declarations for statistics on trading in goods with non-EU countries (Extrastat).
From 2014 onwards, TEC data is prepared on the basis of the two sources mentioned above.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
The length of comparable time series is 11 years.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
See item 15.3 ‘Coherence - cross domain’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
See item 15.4 ‘Coherence - internal’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
CBS doesn't have a summary of cost regarding production of TEC data.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Croatian Bureau of Statistics doesn't have revision policy regarding TEC data, which are compiled on the basis of final annual data. Revisions occur only on an ad hoc base, i.e. if requested by Eurostat.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
TEC data are based on Intrastat forms and Customs declarations.
The Statistical Business Register is also used when compiling TEC data; no other administrative register (e.g. Register of ships) is used. The Business Register refers to the whole reference year and is updated on a monthly basis.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Intra-EU trade and Extra-EU trade
Monthly
Business Register
Monthly
TEC data
Annual
18.3. Data collection
Intrastat System
The Intrastat report (Intrastat Form) is submitted to the Intrastat system exclusively by electronic data exchange via the web application CIWS - Croatian Intrastat Web Service. The deadline for submitting Intrastat Forms is the fifteenth of the calendar month following the end of the reference month.To access and use the CIWS web application, users (PSIs or agents) have to be registered in e-Customs. The Intrastat form (IF) is an electronical form in XML format. The XML format of the Intrastat form can be generated from:
An excel file of Intrastat form
PSIs reporting fewer number of monthly items can use the Excel format of the Intrastat form. Data are to be manually entered into the Excel Intrastat form. After entering the data, an XML format of the Intrastat form (i.e., a file to be submitted to the Intrastat System) is generated from the Excel Intrastat form. The generated XML form is uploaded into the Intrastat System via CIWS – the Croatian Intrastat Web Service.
CIWS online Intrastat Form
Online Intrastat Form contains the same structure and fields as Excel version, but with more functionalities. (control of data)
User applications
User applications with implemented functionality for electronic data exchange with e-Customs submit the generated .xml immediately to the Intrastat system. XML IF generated from user applications without implemented functionality for submitting IF can be submitted with CIWS web application. All user applications for generating Intrastat reports must contain defined field structure and format of the Intrastat Form and formal field controls. XML format of the Intrastat Form must be generated in line with the default .xml schema.
Extrastat System
Collection of customs declarations and their review for validity falls within the competence of the Customs Administration of the Republic of Croatia, which determines the content and the form of the customs declarations, as well as the manner in which they are to be completed and filed in the customs procedure. The Croatian Bureau of Statistics takes over from the Customs Administration on a monthly basis reviewed customs declarations in the form of data records, then conducts further statistical processes.
18.4. Data validation
INTRASTAT data processing consists of:
Import of exchange rate into SIS
Control of forms which includes: a) Control of big values, most significant products b) Checking of certain CN codes
Making of nil reports
Making of SBR data file
VAT data processing
Making decision about potentially new PSIs and new flows
Making decision about termination of liability
Including/excluding of specific reports
Selection of items (forms) which are sent to Customs for check
Contact with companies due to determining the accuracy of data.
Manual selecting of erroneous items in Excel based on comparison of UV (unit value) and comparison with values in the previous months for the same PSI;
Monitoring and control of goods with strategic importance and highest value (ships and aircraft, petroleum oils, medicaments, motor vehicles, electrical energy, wood, etc.).
EXTRASTAT data processing consists of:
Import of data received from the Customs Administration into the application
Import of exchange rate list in the application
Control of customs records which includes:
Checking of combination of customs procedures (CPC)
Checking of nature of transaction (Not)
Checking of certain codes of the Combined Nomenclature
Checking of net mass, Supplementary Unit quantity
Comparison of statistical procedure with CPC
Checking of partner country (coding)
Determination of national and EU concepts
Control of big values, the most significant products, nature of transaction
Including / excluding of specific records
Selection of records which are sent to the Customs Administration of the Republic of Croatia for check
Contact with companies due to determining the accuracy of data.
Control of the nature of transaction in terms of exclusion of repairs from data processing;
Monitoring and control of goods with strategic importance and highest value (ships and aircraft, petroleum oils, medicaments, motor vehicles, electrical energy, wood etc.).
Checks and data control are obtained directly from business entities.
TEC data disseminated by Eurostat have passed the following quality checks:
Intra-dataset checks: completeness of each dataset and uniqueness of the records, validity of the codes, validity of code combinations across the different dimensions, inter-record consistency checks;
Inter-dataset checks: consistency of trade values and numbers of enterprises related to similar combinations across the datasets;
Intra-domain check: check of the coherence between trade values published in TEC datasets and trade values coming from aggregated and detailed trade in goods data.
All operations to derive TEC data are integrated in Intrastat SIS (Statistical Intrastat System) Database:
Generating datasets and
Application of data confidentiality.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
No imputation made by Eurostat
18.6. Adjustment
The trade in goods data used to compile the TEC data include adjustments for missing trade (trade below threshold and non-response in intra-EU trade).
HR Extrastat data refers only to data from custroms declarations; therefore adjustments for missing, delayed and incomplete records for extra EU trade are not included.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Data are not calendar adjusted nor seasonally adjusted.
All reference documents and relevant information on TEC data can be found on the Overview page of the ‘International trade in goods’ section on Eurostat website.
The main objective of the trade in goods statistics by enterprise characteristics (TEC) is to bridge two major statistical domains which have traditionally been compiled and used separately, business statistics and international trade in goods statistics (ITGS). Specifically, this new domain was created to answer questions such as:
What kind of businesses are behind the trade flows of goods?
What is the contribution of a particular activity sector to trade?
What is the share of small and medium-sized enterprises to total trade?
What is the share of enterprises that trade with a certain partner country and the amount of trade value they account for?
For this purpose, the trade in goods between countries is broken down by economic activity, size-class of enterprises, trade concentration, geographical diversification and products traded. The new information is used to carry out more sophisticated kinds of analysis, e.g. to evaluate the role of European companies in the context of globalisation or to assess the impact of international trade in goods on employment, production and value added, essential in a globalised world where economies are increasingly interconnected.
Available datasets
TEC data are grouped into 10 datasets, each one focusing on a specific aspect:
Trade by activity sector and enterprise size class — Trade by activity sector and employment size class shows the contributions of economic activities and size classes (measured in terms of number of employees until 2021 and in term of number of employees and self-employed from 2022 reference year) to total trade. This allows the impact of international trade on employment to be analysed and the importance of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to be estimated.
Concentration of trade by activity — International trade being typically dominated by a few businesses, this indicator shows the share of the total trade accounted for by the top 5, 10, 20, etc. companies.
Trade by partner country and activity — Trade by partner country shows how many companies were trading with certain partner countries or country zones, and the value they accounted for. This indicator enables the most typical export or import markets to be identified.
Trade by number of partner countries and activity — Trade by number of partner countries shows how geographically diversified the export markets are. For imports, it shows the number of countries from which goods are imported.
Trade by commodity and activity — Trade by commodity and activity sector allocates the trade of each commodity to the activity of the trading enterprise. This indicator shows which sectors were involved in the trading of each product group.
Trade by type of trader — This indicator provides information on how traders are involved in international trade. It shows the number of companies trading within only one flow or in both flows and the trade value these companies account for.
Trade by type of ownership — The type of ownership is referring to the concept of control and to affiliation of an enterprise. It indicates whether an enterprise is domestically or foreign controlled and, if domestically controlled, whether it has affiliates abroad or not. This indicator can be used to analyse the impact of globalisation on international trade and to estimate the importance of multinational companies for trade.
Trade by export intensity — Export intensity categorises enterprises according to the importance of foreign markets in their sales. It refers to the share of exports in total turnover.
Trade by activity sector — In comparison with trade by activity and enterprise size class (first dataset), this indicator provides more details on the activity sector (2- or 3-digit level) but does not contain information about the enterprise size.
Trade by partner country and size class — This indicator aims to give insights into the internationalisation of small- and medium sized enterprises. It complements indicator 3 on trade by partner country and activity by applying the same detailed breakdown of partner countries but categorising enterprises by size class instead of activity sector.
10 April 2025
Trade value
The value of traded goods is calculated at the national frontier, on a FOB basis (free on board) for exports and a CIF (cost, insurance, freight) basis for imports. Hence, only incidental expenses (freight, insurance) are included and they are incurred for:
exports in the part of the journey located on the territory of the country where the goods are exported from;
imports in the part of the journey located outside the territory of the country where the goods are imported to.
Number of enterprises
The number of enterprises consists of a count of the number of enterprises involved in trade during at least a part of the reference period. For intra-EU trade, VAT data are used to estimate the number of traders and trade value of the smallest traders which are exempted from Intrastat reporting. These traders account for a limited share of the trade value – at most 3 % of the total value of the intra-EU exports and 7 % of the total value of the intra-EU imports – but in terms of number of enterprises they consist of the majority.
Partner country
Trade flows are broken down by partner country.
For exports it is the country of destination of the goods. That is the last country to which it is known that, at the time of export, the goods are to be delivered.
For imports, the definition of the partner country differs between Intrastat and Extrastat. For extra-EU imports it is the country of origin of the goods; for intra-EU imports it is the country (EU Member State) of consignment of goods.
Product
The product is the outcome of economic activity and the generic term used for goods and services.
Product classifications are designed to categorise goods and services that have common characteristics. They provide the basis for preparing statistics on the production, consumption, international trade and distributive trade. However, the scope of TEC is limited to the trade in goods.
Economic activity
The economic activity consists in offering goods and services on a given market. An activity is characterised by an input of products, a production process and an output of products. In other words, an economic activity is said to take place when resources such as equipment, labour, manufacturing techniques, information networks or products are combined, leading to the creation of specific goods or services.
Classifications of economic activities are designed to categorise data that can be related to the unit of activity. They provide the basis for preparing statistics of output, the various inputs to the production process, capital formation and the financial transactions of such units. Economic activities are classified according to NACE, the classification used to classify economic entities (enterprises, local units and similar statistical units). Within the international trade statistics, the NACE classification refers to the economic activity of traders, i.e. enterprises that are active in international trade.
Number of employees and self employed persons
The number of employees refers to the number of those persons who work for an employer and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind. A worker is considered to be a wage or salary earner of a particular unit if he receives a wage or salary from the unit regardless of where the work is done (in or outside the production unit).
A self-employed person is the sole or joint owner of the unincorporated enterprise (one that has not been incorporated i.e. formed into a legal corporation) in which he/she works, unless they are also in paid employment which is their main activity (in that case, they are considered to be employees). Self-employed people also include:
unpaid family workers;
outworkers (who work outside the usual workplace, such as at home);
workers engaged in production done entirely for their own final use or own capital formation, either individually or collectively
Until reference year 2021 only the number of employees was used to determine enterprise size classes.
The number of employees is a mandatory variable to be recorded in the business registers for each enterprise and local unit. According to the Business Register Regulation, the intention is to use the situation at the end of the year. However, as the end date approach is not harmonised the annual average can also be used as reference.
Type of traders
In the context of the TEC data, the type of trader specifies the type of trade activity of the enterprise. It indicates whether the enterprise is involved only in exports or only imports or trade in both flows.
The type of trader aims to describe the heterogeneity of enterprises according to their involvement in trade.
Type of ownership
In the context of the TEC data, the type of ownership refers to the concept of control and to the affiliation of an enterprise. It indicates whether an enterprise is domestically or foreign controlled and if it is domestically controlled, whether it has affiliates abroad or not. In other words, the type of ownership refers to the delineation of enterprise groups and categorising them. In this context, the concept of control prevails as referred in article 3 (4) of the Business Register Regulation (EC) No 177/2008. This Regulation applies the European System of Accounts (ESA) definition for the control as set out in point 2.26 of Annex A to Regulation (EC) no 2223/96. The concept of control prevails also in the FATS Regulation and is defined as follows: "‘control’ shall mean the ability to determine the general policy of an enterprise by choosing appropriate directors, if necessary. In this context, enterprise A is deemed to be controlled by an institutional unit B when B controls, whether directly or indirectly, more than half of the shareholders’ voting power or more than half of the shares". This definition is consistent with the ESA definition.
The type of ownership aims to describe the heterogeneity of enterprises according to their global status. A distinction of enterprises into domestically and foreign controlled enterprises has specific interest because of the important role of foreign affiliates. Furthermore, if domestically controlled enterprises with own affiliates abroad are further distinguished from all domestically controlled enterprises, the population all of multinational enterprises can be identified.
Exports intensity
The exports intensity refers to the share of exports of turnover (ratio between exports and turnover).
Exports intensity categorises enterprises according to the importance of foreign markets in their sales. The recent developments in the area of global value chains have raised a question on the heterogeneity of enterprises. It has been traditionally assumed that enterprises in the same activity sector are homogenous in terms of their productivity as well as in generating value-added and employment. However, this may not be a valid assumption any more in the globalised economy as productivity, value-added and employment may depend on the international orientation of enterprises, i.e. their involvement and position in the global value chains. Enterprises with high exports intensity are often also large-scale importers.
Enterprise
The statistical population should comprise all the enterprises involved in intra- and extra-EU trade flows. However, in practice, the linkage between the Trade Register and the Business Register is not systematically straightforward as there may be more complicated linkages or the linkage may not always provide expected outcomes. This relates in particular to the following cases:
Intra-annual business demography changes;
Large and complex businesses;
Incomplete business register data; and
VAT-groups.
The reference population used in the compilation of TEC datasets relates to traders who have reported trade transactions under a valid ID number and were successfully matched with the Business Register. This means that the enterprise characteristics reported in the TEC datasets refer only to a part of total trade.
In the case of Croatia,
are out of scope: missing, delayed and incomplete records for extra-EU trade.
are reported under unknown trade in TEC data:
Adjustments for missing trade (trade below threshold and non-response in intra-EU trade);
Trade carried out by non-resident traders as such traders cannot be associated to an enterprise via the national Business Register.
Croatia.
The reference period is the same as for monthly trade in goods statistics. It should be the calendar month of export respectively that of import of the goods. However, in practice the reference period is in general:
the calendar month during which the customs declaration is accepted by the national authorities for extra-EU trade; and
the calendar month during which VAT becomes chargeable on intra-EU acquisitions for intra-EU trade.
See item 13.1 ‘Accuracy - overall’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
Trade value in thousands of euros
Number of enterprises
All operations to derive TEC data are integrated in Intrastat SIS (Statistical Intrastat System) Database:
Generating datasets and
Application of data confidentiality.
TEC data are based on Intrastat forms and Customs declarations.
The Statistical Business Register is also used when compiling TEC data; no other administrative register (e.g. Register of ships) is used. The Business Register refers to the whole reference year and is updated on a monthly basis.
Statistics by enterprise characteristics are updated once a year with a new reference year. Historical data are exceptionally revised.
See item 14.1 ‘Timeliness’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
See item 15.1 ‘Comparability - geographical’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
Data are comparable since 2014.
With the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union on July 1, 2013, CBS became obliged to prepare TEC data.
After the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union on 1 July 2013, data on foreign trade in goods statistics of the Republic of Croatia are acquired from two different sources:
the Intrastat form for statistics on trading in goods between EU Member States (Intrastat) and the customs declarations for statistics on trading in goods with non-EU countries (Extrastat).
From 2014 onwards, TEC data is prepared on the basis of the two sources mentioned above.
