Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)

Business Statistics Directorate (DCSE)

Statistics on Production and Foreign Trade Division (SEB)

Via Tuscolana, 1788 00173 Rome Italy

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 globalization or to assess the impact of international trade in goods on employment, production and value added, essential in a globalized world where economies are increasingly interconnected.

Available datasets

TEC data are grouped into following datasets, each one focusing on a specific aspect :

Breakdown 1: Activity. This dataset gives more detailed information about the contribution of economic activities to total trade. Data are requested at a more detailed level of the activity sector than in other datasets, but without other characteristics

Breakdown 2: Activity and size class of number of employees and self-employed persons. This dataset aims to show the contribution of economic activities and size of an enterprise (in terms of number of employees and, from the reference year 2022 onwards, self-employed persons) to total trade. They can be used to analyse the impact of international trade in goods on employment and to estimate the importance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (classes ELT10, E10T49 and E50T249) for trade.

Breakdown 3: Activity and additional geographical breakdown. This dataset shows the number of enterprises trading with certain partner countries or country zones and the associated trade values. It aims to identify the most common exports or imports markets.

Breakdown 4: Size class of number of employees and self-employed persons and additional geographical breakdown. This dataset aims to give insights on the internationalisation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (classes ELT10, E10T49 and E50T249). It complements Breakdown 3 by applying the same detailed breakdown of partner countries but categorizes enterprises by size classes instead of activity sectors. The size class is measured in terms of number of employees and, from the reference year 2022 onwards, self-employed persons.

Breakdown 5: Activity and number of partner countries. This dataset aims to show the geographic diversity of the markets. Specifically, it shows the number of countries the goods are imported from or exported to.

Breakdown 6: Activity and concentration of trade. International trade in goods is usually concentrated in a few enterprises. This dataset aims to show how much of the total trade is accounted for by the top 5, 10, 20, etc. enterprises.

Breakdown 7: Activity and type of trader. This dataset serves to provide information on how traders are involved in international trade in goods. It shows the number of enterprises trading within only one flow – exports or imports – or in both flows and the trade value, these enterprises account for.

Breakdown 8: Activity and exports intensity (share of exports on turnover). This dataset shows the importance of foreign markets, measured in terms of ratio of exports with turnover. It gives insights on the heterogeneity of enterprises by categorising all trading enterprises into more foreign-market oriented (with high exports intensity) and more domestic-market intensive (with lower exports intensity).

Breakdown 9: Activity and type of control. This dataset aims to show the contribution of economic activities and type of control to total trade. It can be used to analyse the impact of globalisation on international trade and to estimate the importance of multinational enterprises for trade.

Breakdown 10: Activity and commodity. This dataset aims to show which sectors of the economy were involved in the trade of each product group. It allocates the trade of each commodity to the activity of the trading enterprise.

Breakdown 11: Trade population. This dataset serves as an overview of the matching of source data. It gathers information on the reference populations and provides quality indicators on data matching.

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.

Statistical classifications can be accessed here.

All Economic activities (NACE) are covered.

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 identify the smallest traders (and to estimate their trade value), which are exempted from Intrastat reporting. These traders account for a limited share of the trade value. In line with the legal requirements, this share should not exceed 3 % of the total value of the intra-EU exports and 7 % of the total value of the intra-EU imports. However in terms of number of enterprises the smallest enterprises below threshold trade make 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).

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.

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

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.

The basic unit is the legal unit. It differs from the ITGS reporting units (VAT taxable unit). Those are linked to the Business Register in order to produce TEC data.

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. Are out of scope:

• Adjustments for missing trade (trade below threshold and non-response in intra-EU trade; missing, delayed and incomplete records for extra-EU trade);
• Trade carried out by non-resident traders as such traders cannot be associated to an enterprise via the national Business Register; and
• Trade carried out by private individuals.

Italy

No provincial or regional versions of TEC data are produced.

TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

From 2012 as reference year

TEC data disseminated at national level

National links between ITGS data and business register are produced since 2007 as reference year.

Not applicable.

TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

• Trade value in thousands of euros
• Number of enterprises

TEC data disseminated at national level

• Trade value in euro
• 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.

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

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

All regulations relevant for the European statistics on international trade 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.

Not applicable.

According to the article n. 9 of the Legislative Decree n. 322 of 6 September 1989 data collected by statistical offices within the statistical surveys included in the National Statistical Programme may not be disclosed other than in aggregated form such that no reference to identifiable people can be extracted. Furthermore, they may be used only for statistical purposes. Data may not be communicated or disseminated neither to any external subject, public or private, nor to any department of the public administration other than in aggregate form and using modalities which prevent the identification of the people involved. In any case, data cannot be used to identify again the people involved. The Code of Conduct annexed to the Legislative Decree no. 196 of 30 June 2003 (Personal Data Protection Code) and Legislative Decree no. 101 of 19 September 2018  (General Data Protection Regulation) provide special rules concerning the processing of personal data for statistical purposes within Sistan. In order to make statistical confidentiality and protection of personal data effective, Istat is currently taking appropriate organisational, logistical, methodological and statistical measures in accordance with internationally established standards.

Dissemination cells with less than 3 enterprises are suppressed.

The Italian National Statistical System applies the active criteria for all other business statistics. To determine the confidentiality cells are used the number of enterprises criterion. The same criterion is applied for each datasets.

The secondary confidentiality is applied. The solution is to keep the higher level aggregates, where possible by treating another cell as secondary confidential.

TEC data disseminated at national level

TEC data are nationally disseminated in the yearly Foreign Trade Statistics Yearbook, in July. 

TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

See item 8.1 ‘Release calendar’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

TEC data disseminated at national level

https://annuarioistatice.istat.it/

 TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

Not applicable.

TEC data disseminated at national level

The dissemination of TEC data is associated with a public event jointly organized every year by ISTAT and Italian Trade Agency (ITA). During the event, some statistical tables related to TEC data but with some differences in the used size classes of enterprises, are disseminated. On the same day, ISTAT micro-data are made accessible for research purposes on request. For such purpose, the micro-data database for research (ADELE) is populated with TEC data.

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)’.

Statistics by enterprise characteristics are updated once a year with a new reference year. Historical data are exceptionally revised.

TEC data disseminated at national level

Ad-hoc press release

TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

No news release

TEC data disseminated at national level

Yearly Foreign Trade Statistics Yearbook

https://annuarioistatice.istat.it/

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)’.

TEC data disseminated at national level

https://www.annuarioistatice.it

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)’.

Not available.

Several ISTAT micro-data are made accessible for research purposes on request. For such purpose, the micro-data database for research (ADELE) is populated with TEC data. Data are anonymised by removing the Enterprise ID.

No other regular publication is made.

Not available.

TEC data disseminated at national level

National methodological technical notes are available on the Istat website associated to the micro-data database (ADELE)

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)’.

100%

TEC data disseminated at national level

Coverage of TEC data is reported in the national methodological technical note available on the Istat website associated to the micro-data database (ADELE).

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)’.

TEC data disseminated at national level

Quality dimensions considered are reported in Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 in particular TEC quality indicators are annually compiled in terms of relevance, accuracy and timeliness.

TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

See item 11.1 ‘Quality assurance’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

See item 11.2 ‘Quality management - assessment’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

Policy makers (Ministry for Economic Development, Italian Trade Agency, etc.) and Enterprises.

Not measured.

TEC data disseminated at national level

Data completeness is measured in terms of coverage of enterprise trade value compared to total trade. Time series coherence in monitored year by year (86.2 for export and 78.3 for import)

TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

See item 12.3 ‘Completeness’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

See document TEC Quality indicators

TEC data disseminated at national level

Unit non responses or late responses are a possible source of undercoverage in Intrastat data affecting TEC.

TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

See item 13.1 ‘Accuracy - overall’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

Not applicable.

Neither the international trade in goods statistics, nor the business registers are affected by errors related to sample surveys.

Not applicable.

TEC data disseminated at national level

Unit non responses in Intrastat is an issue in monthly data production, which is however solved when final revised data are produced. Indeed top traders trade is monthly monitored and non reported values are inserted after contact with non respondents.

TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

See item 13.3 ‘Non-sampling error’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

See item 13.3.3 of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims- International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’

See document TEC Quality indicators

See document TEC Quality indicators

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

See item 14.1 ‘Timeliness’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

See document TEC Quality indicators

Not applicable.

See item 14.2 ‘Punctuality’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

See document TEC Quality indicators

See item 15.1 ‘Comparability - geographical’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

Not applicable.

No changes due to definitions, classifications, coverage or methods occurred over the period. Data are therefore comparable over time

2012 - 2018

TEC data disseminated at national level

Coherence with BR and SBS domains is guaranteed since TEC data are integrated with SBS data (Istat FRAME).

TEC data disseminated by Eurostat

See item 15.3 ‘Coherence - cross domain’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

See item 15.4 ‘Coherence - internal’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.

No additional burden on enterprises, since other surveys and administrative data are used. At ISTAT level, a research assistant is devoted to the task.

No data revision, since TEC data are produced when final ITGS and Business Statistics data are already available.

Not applicable

Not applicable.

International trade in goods statistics by enterprise characteristics are derived from two data sources: the monthly detailed trade in goods data and data taken from the business registers.

Trade in goods data are collected on the basis of:

• a survey for the intra-EU trade, units being the traders whose annual trade value is above the national Intrastat exemption threshold and who are then liable to submit an Intrastat declaration; administrative forms (VIES); and OSS data;
• customs declarations, for the extra-EU trade.

The national business registers serve as the sources for the enterprise characteristics. No samples are drawn from the registers, but the full registers are processed.

ITGS data are monthly collected, below threshold VIES data are quarterly collected, Business Statistics data are annually collected.

ITGS and VIES data are monthly collected by an on-line application. Data collection is performed by the Italian Customs (both VIES, Intrastat and Extrastat).

ITGS data are validated according to ESS standards for data validation. Additionally, some re-classifications for VAT Groups are ad-hoc performed on TEC data.

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.

See the section ‘Data validation’ of the European business statistics compilers’ manual for international trade in goods statistics – trade by enterprise characteristics for information on the main validation rules implemented.

Under threshold ITGS PSIs trade is estimated by using invoiced values reported in VIES data.

No imputation made by Eurostat

Not applicable

The trade in goods data used to compile the TEC data do not include adjustments for missing trade (trade below threshold and non-response in intra-EU trade; missing, delayed and incomplete records for extra-EU trade). There are no specific adjustments made to the TEC data.

Not applicable.

All reference documents and relevant information on TEC data can be found on the ‘Focus on enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ page of the ‘International trade in goods’ section on Eurostat website.