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.
Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Recovery (France)
French Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes (DGDDI)
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Department of Statistics and Economics Studies on External Trade (DSECE)
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
11, rue des deux communes 93558 Montreuil Cedex - France
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
12 November 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
12 November 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
30 September 2024
3.1. Data description
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 ten 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.
Trade in goods data cover all activity sectors, from sections A to U of the NACE Rev.2 classification, including "unknown", recorded in our Customs database completed by VAT database. In our Customs database, the activity is known only when the trader as a legal unit has been identified by a valid "siren" number, not only by an "EORI" number (concerns only extra-EU trade).
Statistical Business Register Sirus managed by Insee, used for these statistics, covers all market production units and all employers units, for all activity sectors (A to U of the NACE Rev.2 classification). It includes both legal units (legal units identified by a "siren" number, establishments identified by a "siret" number) and statistical units (profiled enterprises identified by a "sirus" number and their contour, groups identified by a "group" number and their contour).
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
The statistical unit is the enterprise.
The Business Register Regulation establishes a link between the business registers and the registers of intra- and extra-EU trade operators through a common unit of reference, namely the legal unit. The same regulation also defines the link between the legal unit and the enterprise. Via the legal unit, trade in goods data can then be linked to enterprise characteristics available in the Statistical Business Register Sirus such as the economic activity or the number of employees.
The statistical concept of "enterprises" vs. "legal units" has been implemented by France since TEC 2015.
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 main problem for linkage is anyway the registration in Customs databases under an "EORI" number only, not associated with a valid "siren" number (concerns only extra-EU trade).
The reference population used in the compilation of TEC datasets relates to traders who have reported trade transactions under a valid "siren" 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 (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 - in the case of France, a lot of non-resident traders have a valid "siren" number and are recorded in the national Business Register for VAT reasons, anyway they have been excluded from Business Register linkage, following Eurostat recommendations);
Trade carried out by private individuals - in the case of France, some private individuals have a valid "siren" number, some others are only recorded through an "EORI", the identification and counting of private individuals have not yet taken place in TEC.
3.7. Reference area
France’s customs territory, which includes Corsica, Monaco, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte and French part of Saint-Martin.
3.8. Coverage - Time
From 2012 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 has entered into Customs database 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.
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.
Legal acts and other agreements - national level
Loi n° 51-711 du 7 juin 1951 sur l'obligation, la coordination et le secret en matière de statistiques. (Act of 7th June 1951 regarding the obligation, coordination and secrecy of statistics)
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
In our national legislation, the law number 51-711 of June 7th, 1951 defined obligations regarding statistical secret.
There is no precise rule mentioned in this law, but this has been specified:
on minimum frequency: no cell which concerns less than three units can be disclosed (by decision of the June 13th, 1980 by the director manager of the French NSI);
on the dominance rule: no cell which contains data for which an enterprise concentrates at least 85 % of the total amount can be disclosed (practical rules about disclosure statistics drawn up in 1960 by the national board of the statistical information).
For the TEC data, we apply these two rules about minimum frequency and dominance rule.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The rules applied for treating the data set with regard to statistical confidentiality are cell suppression.
TEC data are not published per se at national level. However, around 100 days after the end of each quarter, a count of exporting legal units over 4 successive quarters is released, by sector of activity and size class. In addition, every year at the beginning of April, a report is published on the evolution over the past year of the number of exporting legal units and exporting enterprises: this annual report is much more detailed than the quarterly reports.
8.1. Release calendar
TEC data are only 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)’ for more details.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
TEC data are only 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.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Quarterly and yearly counts and analyses of exporting legal units or enterprises at national level (see 8.) are accessible on spreadsheet and pdf format on this website.
No news release.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
TEC data are only 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 are only 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
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not available.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
TEC data are only 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 are only 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
See item 11.1 ‘Quality assurance’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’.
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 different users of TEC data are:
Administrations, in particular Treasury Department, are the most important users of TEC data. They use TEC data to analyse the characteristics of importing and exporting enterprises, to examine the competitiveness of French economy and to assess public policy of export support.
Professional bodies, associations and qualified individuals. Their needs are diverse. For example, they need information about exporting or importing enterprises on a specific activity sector, such as agriculture, or about enterprises which export towards given partner area, like Africa or United States, and so on.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable.
12.3. Completeness
See item 12.3 ‘Completeness’ 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)’.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
The statistical concept of "enterprises" vs. "legal units" has been implemented by France since TEC 2015. Until TEC 2016, "Business Register" was linked only for market sectors, and non-resident traders recorded in Business Register were counted within this aggregate; also, independent enterprises were reported under "unknown type of ownership".
Between TEC 2021 and TEC 2022, for intra-EU trade flows, the number of partner countries decreased due to the change in the method used to estimate partner countries for trade below the exemption threshold. Before 2022, we used the JATT method, but we now determine the partner country for intra-EU trade—whether for acquisitions or supplies—based on companies’ VAT declarations.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
The statistical concept of "enterprises" vs. "legal units" has been implemented by France since TEC 2015. Until TEC 2016, "Business Register" was linked only for market sectors, and non-resident traders recorded in Business Register were counted within this aggregate; also, independent enterprises were reported under "unknown type of ownership".
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)’.
TEC data are derived from information made available by two major statistical domains: the international trade in good s statistics and the business statistics. No specific data collection is then necessary, which means that the burden is null for the respondents, i.e. for the traders and businesses.
The cost of TEC data only relates to the compilation step carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies which links legal unit and enterprise and by the department of statistics and economics studies which compiles international trade in goods by enterprise characteristics.
17.1. Data revision - policy
There is no revision policy applied to TEC data transmitted to Eurostat.
17.2. Data revision - practice
TEC data transmitted to Eurostat can be exceptionally revised in case of methodological changes in the statistical processing.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
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 census for the intra-EU trade, the census units being the traders whose annual trade value is above the national survey exemption threshold and who are then liable to submit a statistical declaration; and
administrative forms, the customs declarations, for the extra-EU trade.
Note that missing data (exempted intra-EU traders, missing statistical survey declarations) are estimated by the NSI in order to disseminate trade in goods data targetting a 100% trade coverage.
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.
Some differences in the coverage among the countries can occur. Different administrative sources depending on national law, as well as surveys, are used to update the business registers, and in some countries VAT thresholds for registration apply.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Intra-EU trade and Extra-EU trade
Monthly.
Business Register
Annual.
TEC data
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
Collection of trade in goods data
For intra EU trade, any VAT-registered business that trades goods with other EU Member States is required to provide information on its transactions. The information is obtained directly by the national authority responsible for the collection of trade in goods statistics. The largest ones are surveyed on a monthly basis within a fixed deadline.
For the compilation of extra-EU trade statistics, the standard data source is the customs declaration submitted by businesses. The customs declaration may be in paper form — the Single Administrative Document (SAD) — but is most commonly in electronic format.
18.4. Data validation
TEC data transmitted to Eurostat and disseminated by Eurostat have passed the following quality checks:
Consistency with the expected structural requirements: validity of format and codes, integrity of the file;
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.
The only operation performed on the source data to derive TEC data compliant with EU requirements is to link the International Trade in goods data with the Business Register data.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
No imputation made by Eurostat.
18.6. Adjustment
Intra-EU trade
The intra-EU trade below the exemption threshold is estimated based on data provided by tax authorities concerning the relevant intra-EU acquisitions and deliveries. These adjustments are then broken down by partner country and by product chapter level in the nomenclature, to enhance external trade statistics. Until the TEC 2022 exercise, the JATT method was used for this breakdown. From 2022 onwards, partner countries are identified from companies’ VAT declarations, while traded products are determined using the nearest neighbor method (cold deck).
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
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 ten 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.
30 September 2024
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.
The statistical unit is the enterprise.
The Business Register Regulation establishes a link between the business registers and the registers of intra- and extra-EU trade operators through a common unit of reference, namely the legal unit. The same regulation also defines the link between the legal unit and the enterprise. Via the legal unit, trade in goods data can then be linked to enterprise characteristics available in the Statistical Business Register Sirus such as the economic activity or the number of employees.
The statistical concept of "enterprises" vs. "legal units" has been implemented by France since TEC 2015.
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 main problem for linkage is anyway the registration in Customs databases under an "EORI" number only, not associated with a valid "siren" number (concerns only extra-EU trade).
The reference population used in the compilation of TEC datasets relates to traders who have reported trade transactions under a valid "siren" 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 (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 - in the case of France, a lot of non-resident traders have a valid "siren" number and are recorded in the national Business Register for VAT reasons, anyway they have been excluded from Business Register linkage, following Eurostat recommendations);
Trade carried out by private individuals - in the case of France, some private individuals have a valid "siren" number, some others are only recorded through an "EORI", the identification and counting of private individuals have not yet taken place in TEC.
France’s customs territory, which includes Corsica, Monaco, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Mayotte and French part of Saint-Martin.
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 has entered into Customs database 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.
The only operation performed on the source data to derive TEC data compliant with EU requirements is to link the International Trade in goods data with the Business Register data.
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 census for the intra-EU trade, the census units being the traders whose annual trade value is above the national survey exemption threshold and who are then liable to submit a statistical declaration; and
administrative forms, the customs declarations, for the extra-EU trade.
Note that missing data (exempted intra-EU traders, missing statistical survey declarations) are estimated by the NSI in order to disseminate trade in goods data targetting a 100% trade coverage.
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.
Some differences in the coverage among the countries can occur. Different administrative sources depending on national law, as well as surveys, are used to update the business registers, and in some countries VAT thresholds for registration apply.
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)’.
The statistical concept of "enterprises" vs. "legal units" has been implemented by France since TEC 2015. Until TEC 2016, "Business Register" was linked only for market sectors, and non-resident traders recorded in Business Register were counted within this aggregate; also, independent enterprises were reported under "unknown type of ownership".
Between TEC 2021 and TEC 2022, for intra-EU trade flows, the number of partner countries decreased due to the change in the method used to estimate partner countries for trade below the exemption threshold. Before 2022, we used the JATT method, but we now determine the partner country for intra-EU trade—whether for acquisitions or supplies—based on companies’ VAT declarations.
