Areas not elsewhere specified (Areas, NES)

The partner “Areas NES (not elsewhere specified)” is used (a) for low value trade and (b) if the partner designation was unknown to the country or if an error was made in the partner assignment. The reporting country does not send us the details of the trading partner in these specific cases. Sometimes reporters do this to protect company information.

So, one could say that “Area nes” is a group of partner countries, but the components of the group vary by reporter, by year and by commodity.

Prior to the implementation of the current processing system, there were 16 groupings under areas not elsewhere specified (Areas, NES). As of 1 January 2006, the are only 7 groupings under areas not elsewhere specified (Areas, NES) which was a result of groupings either discontinued or merged together to form new groupings. Areas, not elsewhere specified (Areas, NES) are now associated with continents, whereas previously they were associated with regions.

Areas, NES (for datasets processed before January 2006):

Areas, NES (for datasets processed after January 2006):

Related Question:

Q: I could not find anything in the knowledge base about reporters such as Other Europe, nes and Other Africa, nes.

A: If you combine both lists there shouldn’t be any duplication. The new 7 Areas NES defined were planned for the datasets starting in the year 2000. The datasets beginning with year 2005 should be referring to the 7 new Areas Nes.

Since you need 2005 datasets, it is useful to map the old Areas NES groups into the new NES. Please note these are not new codes but codes which are redefined.

Below is the mapping between old NES to new NES:

899 – Areas, not elsewhere specified
473 – South America, not elsewhere specified – includes 129 (Caribbean, nes) (old)
637 – North and Central America, nes – includes 636+471(Rest of America, nes + CACM)
527 – Oceania, nes
577 – Africa nes – includes 472+290 (Central African Monetary and Economic Union region, nes +
North Africa, nes)
490- Asia, nes – includes 879 (Western Asia, nes)
568- Europe, nes – includes 492 + 697 + 221 (Europe EU, nes + European Free Trade Association,nes + Eastern Europe, nes)

Q. What is Special categories as a partner country?

The partner “Areas NES (not elsewhere specified)” is used (a) for low value trade and (b) if the partner designation was unknown to the country or if an error was made in the partner assignment. The reporting country did not send us the details of the trading partner in those specific cases. Sometimes reporters do this to protect company information.

So, you could say that “Areas nes” is a group of partner countries, but the components of the group will vary per reporter, per year and per comodity.

The partner “Special Categories” (code 839) is used by a reporting country if it does not want the partner breakdown to be disclosed. The use of this partner code depends on the combination of reporting country, trade flow and specific commodity.

The distinction between an “unknown partner country” and an “undisclosed partner country” could be mixed up at times.

Both “Free Zone” (code 838) and “Bunkers” (code 837) are trading partner entities.

“Free Zones” belong to the geographical and economic territory of a country but not to its customs territory. For the purpose of trade statistics the transactions between the customs territory and the free zones are recorded. Free zones can be commercial free zones (duty free shops) or industrial free zones.

“Bunkers” are ship stores and aircraft supplies, which consists mostly of fuels and food.

Q: United States Minor Outlying Islands (581)

A: United States Minor Outlying Islands (581) are made up of individual partner entities of US Miscellaneous Pacific Islands (849), Midway Island (488) and Wake Island (872). Therefore, 581 = 849 + 488 + 872. US Minor Outlying Islands does not report as a statistical territory.