Notes on BACI (analytical database of international trade). 1989-2002 version

BACI draws on United Nations COMTRADE data and covers more than 200 countries and 5,000 products, between 1994 and 2004. Imports and exports flows are reported annually by 130 countries to United Nations in values and quantities. When both exporting and importing countries report, we have two figures for the same flow, which have to be harmonised given the huge discrepancies between them: at the 6-digit level of the Harmonised System, the gap between mirror declarations exceeds 100 % for half of the observations in COMTRADE. Original procedures are developed aiming at providing the more disaggregated and rigorous trade database for the largest possible number of countries and years, with a special care in the treatment of unit values.