Methodology

The combined nomenclature (CN) is the main classification of goods used by the European countries. The CN is based on the harmonised commodity description and coding system classification (HS) managed by the World Customs Organisation (WCO).

Eurostat manages correspondence tables which enable the transposition of detailed data collected according to the CN into the following other classifications:

• standard international trade classification (SITC) used in aggregated trade data for short-term and long-term indicators, as well as TIC (trade by invoicing currency) data;
• classification of products by activity (CPA) enabling trade statistics to be considered jointly with other sets of general economic statistics, such as national accounts, employment, and industrial statistics. It is also used as the product classification in TEC (trade by enterprise characteristics);
• broad economic categories (BEC) used for the conversion of international trade data based on the SITC into specific economic categories needed, for instance, for the analysis of global value chains.

The European business statistics geonomenclature applicable to European statistics on international trade in goods – commonly called ‘the Geonomenclature’ – is the country nomenclature used to identify both the reporting country and the partner country.

The Geonomenclature largely matches with the ISO 3166 standard.

The statistical classification of economic activities in the European Union (NACE Rev. 2) is used for trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC) data.