Databases on Trade available in the SAARC Secretariat

SAARC Secretariat has been acquiring new databases on trade, investment and trade control measures. The information/data contained in these databases is being disseminated to interested individuals/institutions both within and outside the region for promotion of exports from the SAARC region. This is an important exercise being carried out by the Economic and Trade Division of the Secretariat when having operationalised SAPTA, member countries are moving ahead to realise the objective of a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) within the mandated time-frame.

Currently, databases installed in the Secretariat are

1.  CD-ROM TRAINS for Windows developed by UNCTAD;
2. CD-ROM PC-TAS developed by International Trade Centre (ITC), UNCTAD/WTO;
3. DBI (Doing Business with India) developed by the Government of India; and
4. Revised Harmonised System Nomenclature (HS System) developed by World Customs Organisation, Brussels.

CD-ROM TRAINS (Trade Analysis and Information System) for Windows. The latest version 3.0 compatible with Windows 95, contains information, inter-alia, on trade and trade control measures of sixty-seven countries of the world. TRAINS for Windows now provides historical data for a five-year period on trade control measures (TCMs) and import statistics from 1990 to the most recent year available. It is designed to render compatible the presentation and analysis of six different databases by utilizing the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System comprising 5,018 basic items, as the common classification. The SAARC Countries covered in TRAINS are Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Under the MOU signed with UNCTAD, the obligations of the Secretariat, inter-alia, are to update the Database on Trade Control Measures in respect of SAARC Member States and disemination of information on TRAINS.

CD-ROM PC-TAS contains statistical data (Import Tabulation System) with five-year time-series and trend analyses based on COMTRADE Database of United Nations Statistical Office. Coverage of data in this CD-ROM includes: import/export/re-export data for five years from 1989 to 1993; data in respect of 46 reporting countries and territories, most members of OECD and NICs; all partner trading countries and territories; all SITC Rev.3 products at the 1-, 4- and 5-digit respective levels (3,869 items). It is a user-friendly data retrieval system by reporting country, partner trading countries, products, imports, exports, minimum value. Data can be transferred to other computer programs for file management and statistical and graphic analyses. Out of SAARC countries India and Pakistan have been covered as the Reporting Countries and all SAARC countries figure as partner countries.

“DBI (Doing Business with India)” developed by the Government of India gives information, inter-alia, about incentives and benefits of investing in India and trade with India. DBI also gives relevant information about all States and Union Territories of India.

Revised Harmonised System Nomenclature (HS System) as applicable from 1st January 1996 along with HS Convention and full details of six-digit HS Codes is available in computer readable form in the Secretariat. This Revised Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (HS System) has been received in the Secretariat with the cooperation of World Customs Organisation, Brussels.

Secretariat is in the process of obtaining similar relevant databases from other international organisations and Member Governments of SAARC in order to strengthen its capability to provide information from economic and trade databases.

Information and data contained in the above computerised trade databases is being disseminated on a regular basis to the business and trading communities, economic researchers, consultants and other concerned institutions/individuals, on request.