Page 269 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS243 Arvydas L.
Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), which last revision SITC
Rev.4 was officially released in 2008 covers all goods classifiable in HS 2007,
except for monetary gold, gold coin and current coin. SITC is now
recommended only for analytical purposes, so there has been no need to
revise the structure according to valid HS. The commodity groupings of SITC
reflect: (a) the materials used in production, (b) the processing stage, (c)
market practices and uses of the products, (d) the importance of the
commodities in terms of world trade, and (e) the technological changes (UN,
2015). International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), which last revision
ISIC Rev.4 (UN, 2008) has been released in 2008, is mainly focused on the
industrial origin. It means on: (a) the inputs of goods, services and factors of
production; (b) the process and technology of production; (c) the
characteristics of outputs and the use to which the outputs are placed. It is a
classification according to the kind of productive activity, and not a
classification of goods and services, for which cross-references to CPC are
defined.
Broad Economic Categories (BEC) classification was originally designed to be
used for the compilation of data on international trade by large economic
classes of commodities. It was also designed to serve as a means of converting
external trade data compiled on SITC into end-use categories that are
meaningful within the framework of the System of National Accounts (SNA),
namely, categories approximating the three basic classes of goods in SNA:
capital goods, intermediate goods and consumption goods. (UN, 2011).
On the national level, classification of wood and paper products are rare, but
as an example Canada can be mentioned, where A New Taxonomy of Wood
Products (Cohen, 1996) and A Revised Taxonomy of Wood Products (Cohen,
2008) were published. The first taxonomy covered both composite products
and solid wood but does not take into account products of chemical
processing (pulp and paper). The later taxonomy categorizes both composite
products and solid wood but quickly summarizes also pulp and paper
products.

2. Methodology
In February 2015 at its 29th session, the Intersecretariat Working Group on
Forest Sector Statistics (IWG), which is composed of four active members
EUROSTAT, FAO (Forestry Department), International Tropical Timber
Organization (ITTO) and UNECE (Forestry and Timber Sector) recommended
to update the Classifications and Definitions of Forest Products publication to
accommodate recent changes in the major international classifications and
forest products markets.
Recommendation included to maintain a similar structure as the previous
versions, while incorporating recent changes to the Joint Forest Section

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