Statistical Abstract » Foreign Trade

This chapter provides data on international trade for ESCWA member countries in United States dollars. Data were primarily complied from national sources.

Table VIII-1 includes the trade of ESCWA member countries as a share of total world trade, and of trade of developed and developing economies as a percentage for 1990, 1995, 2000, 2003 and 2004. It can be noted that the share of exports from ESCWA member countries as a percentage of total exports of developed economies declined slightly from 9.4 per cent in 2003, to 8.6 per cent in 2004 and that the share of ESCWA in the exports of total developed countries reached 5.3 per cent in 2004.

The chart that accompanies table VIII-1 shows that the exports and imports of ESCWA member countries represented 3 per cent and 2 per cent respectively of total world trade during 2004.

The total value of imports, exports and balance of trade for the period 1995-2004 is illustrated in table VIII-2. Data indicate that the total value of exports from ESCWA member countries rose by 15.7 per cent in 2004 in comparison with 2003. The balance of trade for ESCWA countries registered 58 billions US dollars in 2004.

Tables VIII-3 and VIII-4 detail the geographical distribution of imports and exports for ESCWA member countries for 1995 and the period 2000-2004. Tables VIII-5 and VIII-6 highlight the value of regional imports and exports, including oil, by Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (H.C.D.C.S) for the period 2000-2004.

Some differences may be found between data in tables VIII-5 and VIII-6 and those in tables VIII-2, VIII-3 and VIII-4. This may be attributed to the non- distribution of oil import/export values or re-export values by H.C.D.C.S sections to different countries and economic blocs, the non-distribution of import/export values of the free zones or non-monetary gold, or may be attributed to differences in approximation.