Contributed by: James Anderson,
Department of Economics,
Boston College,
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
E-mail: Anderson@bc.edu
Description:
The files beginning with T_ contain tariff and non-tariff barrier (NTB) aggregated from the TRAINS dataset as part of a project at the World Bank. The data is aggregated to 4 digit Harmonized System codes level from 6 or 7 digit level. The tariffs are a trade weighted average of the tariffs at the 6 or 7 digit level. The non-tariff barrier variable equals unity if 75% or more of 6 or 7-digit lines had non-tariff barriers in place, and zero otherwise.
The tariff and non-tariff variables, along with the corresponding import data at the 4-digit Harmonized System, are provided for a single year (indicated below), except for Argentina, Morocco and Pakistan, which have data for two or more years.
This data should be referenced to the paper:
James E. Anderson, Trade Restrictiveness Benchmarks, Boston College, June 1994, mimeo.
Record Layout:
Each file T_*.ASC consist of the following variables:
columns 1-4 - 4-digit Harmonized System code column 6 - Non-tariff barrier (equals 0 or 1) columns 8-14 - Average tariff (e.g. 0.2 = 20% ad valorem tariff) columns 16-26 - Import value (US$ 1,000) columns 28-29 - Year (omitted in all single-year files)
Organization of Files:
The data is organized into separate files depending on whether the 4-digit commodity is a final good (with the suffix FIN) or an intermediate input (with the suffix INT).
Each file name is of the form T_NM_FIN.ASC, or T_NM_INT.ASC, where NM is a two-digit country name. There are 24 countries included, with the year(s) of data indicated below:
Country Full Name Year AG* Argentina 1985 and 1988 AT Austria 1988 AU Australia 1988 BO* Bolivia 1991 BR Brazil 1989 CA Canada 1990 CH Switzerland 1988 CO Colombia 1991 EC* Ecuador 1991 FI Finland 1988 HU* Hungary 1991 ID Indonesia 1989 IN India 1991 JP Japan 1988 KR Republic of Korea 1988 MR* Morocco 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1988 MX Mexico 1989 MY Malaysia 1988 NO Norway 1988 NZ New Zealand 1988 PE* Peru 1991 PH Phillippines 1991 PK* Pakistan 1986 and 1988 PL Poland 1989 PY* Paraguay 1990 SE Sweden 1988 TH Thailand 1988 TN Tunisia 1991 US USA 1990 VE* Venezuela 1991 ZA South Africa 1988
* The data for the starred countries is not aggregated from TRAINS data. It was prepared from data supplied by country economists at the World Bank.
Special Considerations:
Comparing the imports totals from the above files with data from the World Bank, World Development Report, there are some discrepencies. It is not unusual, for example, for the total value of imports in the files to differ from that in the World Development Report by 10%, and in some cases by as much as 30%. The source of this discrepency is unknown.
Size:
For countries with data for one year, the file with suffix _FIN has 594 records, and the file with suffix _INT has 647 records.
For Argentina, Morocco, and Pakistan, the files are longer because several years are included; in addition, differing sets of 4-digit harmonized system codes are used in each year.