A Database for Analysis of International Markets
             The importance attached to trade in the context of Canadian economic performance has grown in recent years, in part as a result of the free trade agreement with the United States and a new round of multilateral trade negotiations under the GATT. As a consequence, questions about the relative strength of Canadian exports on foreign markets and import penetration in Canada have become increasingly topical.
             The World Trade Database (WTD), constructed by the International Trade Division of Statistics Canada, provides a rich data source for analysis of such questions. It reflects all international trade flows between members of the United Nations, broken down by partner country and commodity. The database on CD-ROM consists of annual data from 1980 covering some 170 countries trading with one another, and 600 commodities .
             Because the concepts and definitions underlying the U.N. data are not rigorously adhered to, data are harmonized to conform to a standard classification system applying to all countries, commodities and industries. The classification system underlying the WTD for commodities is the Canadian version of the Standard International Trade Classification, Revision 2 (SITC Rev. 2).
             Adjustments are made to the U.N. data to improve the consistency between reporting countries and to estimate the trade of late- reporting and non- reporting countries. These adjustments are performed in sequential order, the results of one procedure becoming the inputs for the next. In general, because of their greater reliability, import figures are treated as benchmarks, while adjustments are made to export figures. However, when import data are unavailable, exports are used to adjust import figures.
             This note describes the nature of the adjustments applied to the U. N. data which have permitted the development of the World Trade Database.
             Because much of the data are not available a...