General description

The Customs General Directorate is the main source for collection of data related to foreign trade. These data are collected monthly through the Custom's Declaration, which was introduced in Albania since 1992. This declaration serves for both customs and statistical purposes. It includes data related to time of transactions, kind of transaction, sort of goods, gross weight, net weight, statistical value of goods, country of origin, exporting country, destination, kind of concession, etc.

Foreign trade statistics record all goods, which are added or subtracted from the material stock resources of a country by imports or exports entering or leaving a territory of a country.

Goods to be includes in the foreign trade statistics include non-monetary gold, not-emitted "barter" agreements, goods traded on government account and food and other humanitarian aids.

Goods simply being transported through a country (transit goods) temporarily admitted or withdrawn (inward or outward processed goods) do not add or subtract from the stock of material resources of a country and are not included in the foreign trade statistics. Goods to be excluded from the international merchandise trade statistics include monetary gold, emitted banknotes securities and coins in circulation, temporarily admitted goods, transit goods, etc.

Goods recommended to be excluded from the detailed international merchandise trade statistics but recorded separately so that detailed information can be adjusted to receive the total of international merchandise trade of national accounts, as well as payment and balance purposes.

Classification system

The complex characteristics of the customs activities and statistical needs make it indispensable to introduce the classification of goods. The nomenclatures used are: the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) and Standard International Trade Classification (SITC).

The Harmonized Commodity Description and coding System (Harmonized System, or HS) or extended versions based on HS, such as the Combined Nomenclature used by our country provides such details. Classification using these nomenclatures is based on the nature of the commodity.

Commodity categories more suitable for economic analysis are provided by the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), which classifies commodities according to their stage of production.

Other classification used, for the other units (inside INSTAT) purposes and needs, are NACE rev2.1, CPA, BEC, etc

 Trade systems

The trade systems in use for international merchandise trade are the general trade system and the special trade systems.

The general trade system

The general trade system is the wider concept and under it the recorded aggregates include all goods entering or leaving the economic territory of a country with the exception of simple transit trade.

The special trade system

The special trade system, on the other hand, is a narrower concept. Goods from a foreign country that are received into customs warehouses, are not recorded in the special trade aggregates unless they subsequently go into free circulation in the country of receipt (or are placed under the customs procedures for inward processing). Similarly, outgoing goods from customs warehouses are not recorded as exports.

 Concepts and definitions

Export-Goods in general are goods destined to be send to a third country subject to customs regime or outside processing arrangements, or re-exported following inside processing.

Import-Goods in general are goods coming from a third country and are directly unloaded or placed to a warehouse according to the customs procedures to accomplish free zones processing, active or customs processing.

Coverage indicator-Is the ratio between the exports value against imports value.

Trade balance-Is the difference between exports and imports.

Trade volume-Is the sum of imports and exports.

FOB (Free on Board) Value-Is the delivery condition of goods, indicating that the price includes transport and handling cost to a specified port for shipment.

CIF (Cost Insurance Freight) Value-Is the delivery condition of goods indicating that the price includes insurance and freight to an agreed port of destination.

Economic Territory of the country-Is that part of the territory of a country where customs law provisions and regulation are fully applied (usually the economic territory of the country corresponds to customs territory).

Customs territory-Customs territory of our country corresponds to statistical territory of Albania.

Source of information

General Directorate of Customs