Clarifying Trade Costs in Maritime Transport

Clarifying Trade Costs in Maritime Transport Clarifying Trade Costs in Maritime Transport

Jane KorinekOECD Trade and Agriculture

Working Party on International Trade in Goods and Trade in Services Statistics 4-6 October 2010

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Maritime transport costs : data collectionMaritime transport costs : data collection

•Values and volumes at HS-6 level

•Transport costs: Ad valorem and $/T

•Comprehensive customs data for Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, United States and Uruguay

•Partial, estimated data for 32 additional countries including China, EU, Japan, Mexico, Russia

•Permits calculation of

– transport cost per tonne of merchandise

– ad valorem equivalent

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Customs data: completeCustoms data: complete

•Where available, we use aggregate transport costs at HS-6 level in conjunction with trade values and volumes

•Data issue: combining value and volume data

•Classification issue: different classifications (HS-88 ; HS-96 ; HS-02) have been converted

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Non-comprehensive data for remaining countriesNon-comprehensive data for remaining countries

•Transport of grains in bulk: $/T. Source: Int’l Grains Council

•Baltic Dry Index for industrial raw materials transported in bulk

•Price per container used to estimate some data using a methodology of relative prices (sources: UNCTAD/Containerisation Intl or Drewery)

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Data issuesData issues

As with all data sets there are issues, some outstanding and some resolved

•Estimated data: aggregate to disagreggated ; BDI is transport costs per shipload of material

•Combining value and volume data

•Cut-off point : we removed 2% of the data points

•Classification conversion

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Evolution of maritime transport costs in developing Evolution of maritime transport costs in developing and OECD countries and OECD countries

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From analytical work on determinants of From analytical work on determinants of Transport Costs: Transport Costs: Trade ImbalanceTrade Imbalance

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Impact of MTC on trade in agricultureImpact of MTC on trade in agriculture

•A doubling of transport costs ($/T) is associated with a 33-36 % decline in agricultural trade overall

•Distance is still significant

•The impact of transport costs on trade is increasing over time – by 1.5 percentage points per year

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DisseminationDissemination

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jane.korinek@oecd.org

OECD Trade and AgricultureOECD Trade and Agriculture