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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.

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International trade in cultural goods (cult_trd_go)

Reference Metadata in Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS)

Compiling agency: Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

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The international trade in cultural goods is considered as one of the economic dimensions of culture. A specific set of statistics can be built based on international trade data: to make a time series analysis, to estimate the contribution of cultural trade to total international trade of each country or to estimate its contribution to total EU Member States trade. These and many other derived indicators, like the distribution of trade by group of products or by trade partner, enable to measure the relative weight of culture in the whole economy.

The international trade in cultural goods covers the import and export of goods traded among Member States and internationally. Presented values are based on current prices, recorded when the data were captured.

"Goods" in this particular case means all movable property, in other terms products having a physical dimension. So, external trade in licenses and copyrights is not included.

"Cultural goods" refer to the particular set of goods and commodities identified according to criteria set up by ESSnet-Culture framework for culture statistics.

 The classifications used to identify cultural goods are CN (Combined Nomenclature; for EU-27 Member States and Candidate Countries) or HS (Harmonised System; for EFTA countries).

The data presented for the EU concern extra-EU trade. This looks at the EU (27 countries from 2020) as a single entity and excludes intra-EU trade (between the EU Member States). By contrast, trade data at national level for individual Member States concern both intra-EU and extra-EU trade.

 

Current scope for international trade in cultural goods

In 2016, for the sake of consistency with the international developments and in particular with the UNESCO statistics, the European scope of international trade in cultural goods was revised by the Working Group 'Culture statsitics' to cover more commodities. Compared to the previous scope that was used for the compilation of statistics until 2015, the following changes have been brought:

  • extension of the category hand-made fabrics with some hand-made ornamental articles;
  • creating a new category with jewellery articles;
  • extension of audio-visual categories;
  • split of audio-visual categories on recorded media with music on the one side and film, video and video games on the other side.

Two tables on international trade in cultural goods in Eurobase present the data according to the new scope for the period since 2004 onwards (see the Notes at the bottom of this section for data by old and new scope).

 

Data source

International trade statistics are stored in the administrated by Eurostat database on international trade — Comext. Comext provides statistics on goods traded between the EU Member States (intra-EU trade) and goods traded by the EU Member States with non-EU countries (extra-EU trade). The trade values for other political or geographical entities like EFTA and candidate countries are as well collected. Comext database is built around six main dimensions:

  • REPORTER;
  • PARTNER;
  • FLOW;
  • TIME;
  • INDICATOR;
  • PRODUCT.

The Reporter dimension includes country declaring commercial transactions.

In the Partner dimension the trade partners of declaring country are included. This dimension lists all the countries of the world.

The Flow dimension distinguishes exports and imports.

Concerning Time, both annual and monthly data are available.

The Indicator dimension specifies the value or volume of traded products.

The Product dimension contains the list of goods by one of the standard product classifications: CN or HS, depending on the dataset.

 

The data in Comext are updated regularly and the CN classification undergoes the revisions every year to ensure it is kept up to date in the light of changes in the technology and international trade patterns. Major revisions take place every 5 years and accompany the revision of HS classification. The latest important revision occured in 2017 and impacted two cultural aggregates (see details in Annex 2 below).

 

 

Cultural goods

The frames for establishing the list of cultural goods for the purpose of international trade were set up by ESSnet-Culture and UNESCO in their respective frameworks for cultural statistics. In both frameworks the core criterion of the identification of 'cultural' goods is the 'artistic creation' and what the products are conveying in terms of symbolic, artistic and spiritual or aesthetic values. To build the list, the 10 cultural domains as identified by ESSnet-culture (heritage, books and press, visual arts, art craft, performing arts, audio-visual and multimedia, architecture, archives, libraries and advertising) were analysed from 'product perspective'. This analysis enabled the identification of numerous 'cultural' codes within seven domains (except archives, libraries and advertising).

 

Current list of cultural goods includes the following product categories:

  • Antiques;
  • Works of art;
  • Craft articles;
  • Jewellery;
  • Books;
  • Newspapers;
  • Maps;
  • Architecture plans and drawings;
  • Photographic plates and films;
  • Recorded media (CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, magnetic tapes, gramophone records);
  • Video game consoles;
  • Musical instruments.

 

Detailed list of codes according to CN composing the cultural aggregates can be found in the Annex 2 - International trade in cultural goods by new scope (since 2017) of the present Metadata file.

 

Then the data are compiled for the following trade partners:

  • Intra-EU
  • Extra-EU
  • World
  • Individual countries

 

Notes

The publication "Culture statistics - 2016 edition" (from the "Statistical books" series) was based on the previous scope. The data using the previous scope are still available for the reference years 2002-2015 via the section 'Information on data/International trade in cultural goods of the Culture Dedicated Section. The detailed content of the old scope can be found in the Annex 1 – International trade in cultural goods by old scope to the present document.

19 September 2023

In the EU, the external trade of goods is monitored, reported and registered in accordance to EU regulations establishing the legal frames for gathering trade statistics. The use of common definitions, classifications and the respect of common procedures guarantee the high level of quality and harmonisation of the collected data and enable the international comparisons at a very detailed level. For more information about the specificity of data collection, procedures and methodologies applied in Member States, please refer to the following document: User guide on European statistics on international trade in goods - 2020 edition.

Customs declarations are used for statistical purposes as the basic data source which provides detailed information on exports and imports of goods with a geographical breakdown.

Any natural and legal person lodging a customs declaration in a Member State is reporting to the extra-EU trade statistics on the condition that the customs procedure is of statistical relevance.

Within intra-EU trade statistics any taxable person carrying out an intra-EU trade transaction is responsible for providing the information.

However small and medium trade operators are exempted from obligation to provide Intrastat declarations. Member States have implemented a threshold system which allows intra-EU traders not to report on their transaction or provide less detailed information on condition that their total trade value does not exceed a certain amount during the previous or present calendar year. However, Member States assure quality standards when determining the national thresholds.

Trade in cultural goods of the EU and its Member States includes all goods which add or subtract from the stock of material resources of the reporting Member State by entering (imports) or leaving (exports) its economic territory. Information on the goods is provided by legal or natural person.

European Union (as aggregate and for each Member State), EFTA countries, the United Kingdom(*), Candidate Countries. Since 2020 data, the reference area has been expanded to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

(*) As a reporting country, the UK is no longer legally obliged to transmit any data to Eurostat since the end of the transition period (31 December 2020). This concerns new reference periods, as well as revisions of data previously transmitted to Eurostat. Currently the ITGS data transmitted by the UK to Eurostat cover the full year 2019, and months January to October 2020. Pending a new agreement on statistical cooperation between the EU and the UK, Eurostat will not publish any new data for reporter UK, whether via the database or other products, such as statistical publications.

The reference period for the information on international trade transaction should be the calendar month of dispatch/export respectively that of arrival/import of the good. However, in practice, the reference period is in general the calendar month during which the customs declaration is accepted by the national authorities on extra-EU trade and for intra-EU trade the calendar month during which VAT becomes chargeable on intra-EU acquisitions. The monthly data are then aggregated to cover round years. For international trade in cultural goods the annual data are presented.

Please consult the metadata file of the Eurostat database on international trade.

  • The trade value of cultural goods is expressed in thousands of euro (THS_EUR).

Based on the number of dimensions available in Comext database, the following indicators can be calculated in the respective categories of Flow (import and export) and Partner (intra-EU, extra-EU, world):

  • Percentage of total cultural trade (PC) - the trade value of each cultural products is divided by total value of cultural trade. This indicator enables to see the distribution of cultural trade by type of cultural goods.
  • Percentage of total national trade (PC_TOT) - the value of cultural trade is divided by total value of national trade. This indicators gives an idea of the weight of cultural trade in total national trade.
  • Percentage of of EU28 (2013-2020) total (PC_EU28) - the value of cultural trade of each Member State is divided by the value of the EU-28 (with the UK) total cultural trade. It enables to see the contribution of Member States to the total EU cultural trade for each group of cultural products.
  • Percentage of of EU27 (from 2020) total (PC_EU27_2020) - the value of cultural trade of each Member State is divided by the value of the EU-27 (without the UK) total cultural trade. It enables to see the contribution of Member States to the total EU cultural trade for each group of cultural products.

The aggregates for international trade in cultural goods are calculated from the harmonised data provided by the Member States to Eurostat, according to the EU framework for cultural statistics.

Statistics on international trade in cultural goods are derived data compiled based on data extracted from Comext database.

For more information about this source data, please consult the metadata file of the Eurostat database on international trade.

The data on international trade in cultural goods are updated once a year, 12 months after the end of the reference period in order to allow the majority of revisions to be completed.

According to the EU legislation, Member States should provide Eurostat with extra and intra-EU aggregated statistics within 40 calendar days after the reference month.

First results (including estimates) on Euro area and EU trade balances are published on line around 46 days after the reference month in the international trade Euro-indicators news release. The latest supplied detailed data (updates and revisions) are published at the date of the monthly press release.

Cultural trade statistics are derived data and therefore are compiled and updated after the compilation of annual data in Comext. Usually, the annual update for cultural trade takes place once a year, 12 months after the end of the reference year in order to cover the majority of revisions that occur in this period.

Please consult the metadata file of the Eurostat database on international trade.

Comparability of cultural statistics over time depends on data source used. When data collected fluctuate because of changes in the way of collecting them or due to revisions in classifications, Eurostat identifies these changes by flagging the data as a "break in series".

Please refer to the metadata file of the Eurostat database on international trade.

 

BREXIT: New EU-27_2020 aggregate

Due to Brexit the EU-27_2020 aggregate has been calculated from February 2020 for the entire time series.