The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System generally referred to as "Harmonized System" or simply "HS" is a multipurpose international product nomenclature developed by the World Customs Organization (WCO).

It comprises about 5,000 commodity groups; each identified by a six digit code, arranged in a legal and logical structure and is supported by well-defined rules to achieve uniform classification. The system is used by more than 200 countries and economies as a basis for their Customs tariffs and for the collection of international trade statistics. Over 98 % of the merchandise in international trade is classified in terms of the HS.

The HS contributes to the harmonization of Customs and trade procedures, and the non-documentary trade data interchange in connection with such procedures, thus reducing the costs related to international trade. It is also extensively used by governments, international organizations and the private sector for many other purposes such as internal taxes, trade policies, monitoring of controlled goods, rules of origin, freight tariffs, transport statistics, price monitoring, quota controls, compilation of national accounts, and economic research and analysis. The HS is thus a universal economic language and code for goods, and an indispensable tool for international trade.

The maintenance of the HS is a WCO priority. This activity includes measures to secure uniform interpretation of the HS and its periodic updating in light of developments in technology and changes in trade patterns. The WCO manages this process through the Harmonized System Committee (representing the Contracting Parties to the HS Convention), which examines policy matters, takes decisions on classification questions, settles disputes and prepares amendments to the Explanatory Notes. The HS Committee also prepares amendments updating the HS every 5 – 6 years.

Decisions concerning the interpretation and application of the Harmonized System, such as classification decisions and amendments to the Explanatory Notes or to the Compendium of Classification Opinions, become effective two months after the approval by the HS Committee. These are reflected in the amending supplements of the relevant WCO Publications.

The yearly data in Mundhra Associates Private Limited for products at 2, 4, and 6 digit level of the Harmonized System are based on UN COMTRADE, the world's largest database of trade statistics, maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). The quarterly and monthly data come from national and regional sources.

Data are available also for countries that do not report their national trade statistics to UN COMTRADE. The trade of these countries has been reconstructed on the basis of data reported by partner countries.

The 5-year growth trend indicators in Mundhra Associates Private Limited are calculated using the logarithmic least-squares trend method on series valued in current US$. They are updated twice a year: the first update with data of the previous year is done in September-October and the second update is done in February-March of the following year, when almost all reporting countries have transmitted their data to UN COMTRADE (the United Nations Statistics Division database). If a country does not report trade data for the last year, the trend calculation is based on mirror statistics. No trend is calculated if the reporting country data is not available for at least a four-year period.

The least-squares trend is a commonly used growth indicator. It has the following advantages:

• It takes into account each of the observations under consideration, unlike geometric (or compound) growth rates, which only consider the first and last observations.
• It measures the stability of observed growth (not provided in Mundhra Associates Private Limited).

The yearly data we receive from UN COMTRADE are in US$. In general, quarterly and monthly data are collected in local currencies. The exchange rate used to convert the local currencies into US$ is a simple arithmetic mean of the daily intrabank rates, provided by www.oanda.com. To display the data in different currencies in Mundhra Associates Private Limited, the exchange rate applied is a simple arithmetic mean of the daily intrabank rates, provided by www.oanda.com.

The Harmonized System (HS) revision of 2007 is used for the trade indicators. For all time series data, the revision used is the latest revision reported by the country for a given year (this information is available from the UN COMTRADE database on comtrade.un.org/db. Go to "Metadata and Reference", then "Country list". Next to each country, click on the link "Data availability"; the years in grey are the data reported, the years in blue are the data converted.

International trade in services in Mundhra Associates Private Limited refers solely to services transactions between residents and non-residents, as collected according to the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual.

Services transactions in the balance of payments broadly correspond to cross-border trade (Mode 1, as defined in the General Agreement on Trade in Services - GATS), one of the four different modes through which services are supplied worldwide (see FAQ 4.e). However, and contrary to trade in goods, services often ask for "proximity" between the consumer and the supplier. Therefore, the balance of payments, and consequently Mundhra Associates Private Limited, presents also trade in services data referring to consumption abroad (Mode2), commercial presence (Mode 3) and the delivery of services by foreign workers (known as movement of natural persons, Mode 4) as long as the resident to non-resident rule is applied.

In the particular case of commercial presence, only the construction sector is covered by the Balance of Payment, while services provided by foreign workers are only recorded as part of a transaction involving other modes of supply.

The Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services (MSITS): This manual aims at building a coherent international framework for the creation of services trade statistics garnered from the BOP (see FAQ 4.b) and other sources (e.g.: Foreign Affilitaes Trade in Services Statistics (FATS), Movement of Natural Persons Statistics, see FAQ 4.h and FAQ 4.i). The manual provides correspondence tables among different international classifications in order to improve the state of services statistics and coordinate the efforts of statisticians and trade negotiators. Aggregations through mode of supply are also suggested in the Manual. The MSITS 2002 has been recently succeeded by the MSITS 2010. The new manual refers to the latest updates occurred within the System of National Accounts and the IMF Balance of Payment framework.