Commodity Code Research Articles

Maw money, maw problems: A lucrative fish maw fishery in Papua New Guinea highlights a global conservation issue driven by Chinese cultural demand

AbstractFish maw (teleost swim bladder) is a dried seafood product valued highly by Chinese cultures in East Asia, though global supply chains are poorly understood. Here, we describe the rapid development of a fish maw fishery in a low‐income nation to illustrate how globalization can affect sustainability. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), fish maw developed into a fishery valued at ∼$831,000 USD annually between 2014–2018. Its development has been driven by Asian expatriates, who provide market access and fishing gear to local communities. The highest valued local species, scaly croaker Nibea squamosa, has a maximum value of $15,615 USD kg−1 (dried) at first‐point‐of‐sale, potentially the highest first‐point‐of‐sale fish maw product globally. Its value has led to high incidental catch rates of threatened species in an area that is a globally significant conservation stronghold. International trade databases need to recognize fish maw as a high value and globally traded product and consider a specific fish maw commodity code to assist nations in identifying emerging fish maw fisheries. Additionally, the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) could assist in protecting vulnerable fish maw species and facilitate management practices for incidentally caught threatened species.

Comparative advantage of Indonesian mushroom commodities in the green technology era

Mushroom is a commodity in the agricultural sector that has the potential to be developed in global trade competition. As part of the ASEAN regional cooperation institution, Indonesia can contribute to achieving excellence in mushroom commodities. Developing mushroom cultivation to support green technology innovation also helps achieve food security for future generations. This research aims to analyze and overview the comparative advantages of ASEAN with China related to mushroom commodities in 2018-2022. This research uses descriptive analysis methods and RCA-Revealed Comparative Advantage analysis in calculating the RCA of this mushroom, using HS codes 0709, 0711, and 0712. HS code 0709 represents mushroom commodities based on the sub “Fresh or chilled mushrooms of the genus “Agaricus” and Fresh or chilled edible mushrooms and truffles. The results show that China has a comparative advantage over ASEAN regarding mushroom commodities in 2018-2022. China outperforms in 3 mushroom commodity sectors in HS Codes 071159, 071151, and 071239. In comparison, ASEAN regional institutions have a low and weak level of comparative advantage in each mushroom commodity code. These results indicate that countries that are members of ASEAN pay less attention to mushroom commodities. Therefore, strategic efforts are needed to develop mushroom commodities supporting green technology innovation by prioritizing humidity control to achieve national food security goals.

Study on the Development Prospects of China-Japan Trade in the Context of Global Value Chains

Abstract This paper proposes a value-added trade measurement model after a specific analysis of the extent of China and Japan’s participation in GVCs, the mode of participation and the status of division of labor, and the characteristics of the participation structure. Combined with the ratio of value-added to total exports, China is compared with major trading countries to study China’s level of value-added in GVCs, trade characteristics, and the proportion of China’s industry-wide development. Combined with the WIOD data, based on the model proposed in this paper, the bilateral trade interests of China and Japan, the bilateral export value, and the trade interest rate of both sides are measured from 2000 to 2014. The classification method of HS commodity code is used to extract the trade data of important time nodes between China and Japan and analyze the development of the structure of commodity trade between China and Japan. It measured that in 2014, the trade interest rate of China to Japan was 81.95%, and the export of 172.911 billion dollars contained 141.707 billion dollars of trade interest. Japan’s trade benefit rate to China was 73.94%, with $95.615 billion of trade benefits included in $129.314 billion of exports. It shows that as of 2014, China has replaced Japan in the bilateral trade between China and Japan to occupy a relatively favorable position, indicating that the international division of labor between China and Japan has gradually shifted from a vertical division of labor to a horizontal division of labor.

Anomaly detection in trade declarations using deep learning techniques: A risk-assessment approach to identify misclassification and incorrect valuation

In Hong Kong, merchandise trade statistics are compiled based on the commodity information given on the trade declarations submitted by traders. Due to the complexity of the standardised commodity classification system (i.e. Hong Kong Harmonized System, or HKHS in short), there are often reporting errors, especially in the commodity codes and quantities. With around 20 million declarations received annually, the availability of this big data source motivates us to adopt deep learning techniques to detect the reporting errors. This paper proposes a mechanism consisting of three deep learning models for checking the commodity code, quantity and value, which offers an end-to-end solution to data quality assurance for declarations. The results show that the proposed mechanism could enhance the accuracy of error detection, which is conducive to improving the quality of trade statistics. With the use of text analytics techniques, the mechanism could fully utilise free-text commodity descriptions declared by traders to check the accuracy of the declared information comprehensively. It also overcomes some limitations of the traditional rule-based models. The whole study demonstrates the potential of using deep learning approach in quality assurance of existing statistical systems for official statistics.

Impact of taxation policy on tobacco consumption in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Taxes on tobacco products that increase the price and target demand-reduction have been shown to be an efficient means of reducing tobacco consumption. A new policy introduced in 2017 has increased the price of a 20-cigarette pack of the most popular brand to 27.50 SAR (7.33 USD) with the tax portion being 68.09%, which is within the yardstick recommended by the World Bank.OBJECTIVE: Assess impact of taxes on cigarette consumption.DESIGN: Retrospective econometric analysis.MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: The annual importation of cigarettes containing tobacco (commodity code 24022000) in metric tons (as a proxy measure of consumption).METHODS: An econometric analysis of cigarette prices and consumption was performed using the methods of the World Bank Economics of Tobacco Toolkit. The impact was assessed statistically through price elasticity of cigarette demand. The study used yearly data for the period 2013-2019 to compare the price elasticity of demand according to the change in price. Cigarette consumption was equated to cigarette imports (dependent variable), and correlation with the cigarette price, income, education, and unemployment was assessed as independent variables of interest.RESULTS: Annual importation of cigarettes declined by 27.41% for the period 2013-2019 after the imposition of ad valorem and value-added taxes in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The price of a pack of cigarettes increased by 115.1% from 2016 to 2018. The per capita consumption was inversely correlated with price *P=.0003285, r=-0.969). The inverse correlation between income and per capita consumption was also statistically significant (P=.025, r=-0.816). Education did not correlate with per capita consumption (P=.740, r=-0.155), but unemployment was inversely correlated (P=.008, r=-0.884). From 2016 to 2018, the price elasticity of demand became negative with respect to income as recommended by the World Health Organization. The price elasticity of demand reached -0.07, -0.8, -0.93 in 2016, 2017, 2018, respectively.CONCLUSION: The modification of tax policy in 2017 has resulted in a decrease in both cigarette affordability and consumption. An additional 42.67% increase in the price, or pack price of 35.81 SAR (9.54 USD) might offset the increase in individual income noted in 2019 and maintain the decreased affordability.LIMITATIONS: The lack of more granular data on cigarette sales and more reliable data on prevalence.CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.

A risk scoring system for seafood supply chain breaches and examination of freshwater fish imported to Australia

Abstract Legislative changes have altered the way imported edible seafood is inspected in Australia. Greater onus of responsibility has been placed on exporting countries to provide documentary evidence of adherence to internally recognized food safety standards. According to global trade agreements, any additional safety tests applied to freshwater fish imported into Australia must be justified. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a risk scoring method to provide justification for identifying countries as ‘Freshwater fish high risk’ and to examine the seafood they export to Australia for seafood supply chain breaches. Scoring was conducted using six predictor variables, identified in the literature as important contributors to seafood supply chain breaches, to achieve the outcome variable, Country considered ‘Freshwater fish high risk’. Sixty-seven fish fillets (9.55 kg) of the same species were examined from the third highest scoring country (Country 20) and 562 (5.6 kg) whole fish from the sixth highest scoring country (Country 22). Country 20 had supply chain breaches of 28 macroscopic yellow cysts in one fillet. Two hundred and thirteen parasites and other supply chain breaches were identified in fish from Country 22, including retained liver (91 per cent), visible mud (11 per cent), a variety of debris (16 per cent) and, depending on the commodity code, these fish were imported to Australia under full intestine (90 per cent), retained gills (89 per cent), and partial intestine (9 per cent). Three serious physical hazards were recovered from the edible portion of three ‘consumer-ready’ fish and snails of Genus Lymnaea and Indoplanorbis were recovered from gill mud also from ‘consumer-ready’ fish. The study showed variable results from the scoring system and vast differences in seafood supply chain breaches between the third and sixth highest scoring countries.

Emerging from the murk: threats, challenges and opportunities for the global swim bladder trade

Fish maw, or swim bladder, has long been used as food and medicine in Asia, particularly in southern China. Considering its history as luxury and nutritious seafood, surprisingly little information on volumes, values, source of maw or species composition involved in the trade is available. In 2015, Hong Kong, the global trade hub for maw, introduced a ‘maw’ commodity code enabling a first global look at its trade. This study finds that 3144–3882 t of dried fish maw was imported annually to Hong Kong from 2015 to 2018, coming from about 110 countries/territories, with a declared import value of 264–394 million USD. These volumes and values, similar to those of the better-known sea cucumber and shark fin trades, highlight the growing importance of maw. Prices can involve massive mark-ups, with investment speculation associated with the most valuable maw categories. Similar volumes to those imported are re-exported annually, mostly to Vietnam. By volume, 50% of maw came from Uganda, Brazil, Tanzania, India and Vietnam. Species composition was dominated by croakers (Sciaenidae), with Lates perch (Latidae), pufferfish (Tetraodontidae), various catfish (Siluriformes) and pike conger (Muraenesocidae) also traded, among other species. This lucrative trade has two components, high value maw and cheaper maw for regular consumption, and is expanding into new markets, such as shark fin substitution. There is loose association between trade category and species which can lead to confusion for consumers. Considering possible threats to biodiversity and evidence of illegal and secretive trade, management is called for to harness benefits and reduce risks.

Efficient use of Russia’s natural resources: agricultural production, export and import

The paper provides assessment of the geographical focus, volumes and cost of import of vegetable products under 0702 Foreign Economic Activity Commodity Nomenclature (FEACN) code under the embargo conditions. To make such assessment, the foreign trade statistics and data, provided by the RF Customs Service were used. At the end of 2017, the import of tomatoes of 0702 FEACN commodity code reduced relative to 2015 in monetary terms by 17.4%, and in weight terms - by 22.5%, and versus 2013 import of tomatoes reduced by 49.5% (down to 558.7 million U.S. Dollars), on a weight basis import reduced by 40.8% (down to 515.8 thousand tons). The completed analysis shows that geographic focus and supply volumes have changed significantly. If in 2013, the main suppliers were Turkey (450, 8 million U.S. Dollars), China (105, 5 million U.S. Dollars), the Netherlands (101, 9 million U.S. Dollars), Morocco (101, 3 million U.S. Dollars), Spain (109, 9 million U.S. Dollars), Belarus (42, 1 million U.S. Dollars), Ukraine (41, 2 million U.S. Dollars), Azerbaijan (41, 0 million U.S. Dollars), in 2017, the main suppliers became such countries as Azerbaijan (155.1 million U.S. Dollars), China (135, 1 million U.S. Dollars), Morocco (132, 4 million U.S. Dollars).

Erratum

Bader, Julia & Ursula E Daxecker (2015) A Chinese resource curse: The human rights effects of oil export dependence on China versus the United States. Journal of PeaceResearch 52(6): 774–790. DOI: 10.1177/0022343315593332 . Author note Our article uses trade data from COMTRADE to compare the human rights implications of oil exports to China versus to the United States from 1992 to 2010. Unfortunately, we made a mistake when merging the oil trade data for the USA. Oil trade data for the USA were erroneously based on a more inclusive commodity code categorization than what is described in the article, including not only crude petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals (HS92 classification, commodity code 2709), but also mineral fuels, oils, and products of their distillation (HS92 classification, commodity code 27). We apologize for this mistake. To assess the implications of this error, we have retrieved the correctly categorized data for the USA and replicated our analysis. Our results remain robust (see Table I corrected below). As in the article, we find a robust, negative effect of oil exports to the USA on exporter human rights. In contrast, exports to China have no effects on human rights. There is a small difference for results in Model 3, which interacts oil export variables with oil discoveries. This model now produces a positive and significant coefficient for exports to China in the absence of discoveries, but this finding is not inconsistent with the article’s claims regarding the potentially more benign effects of oil exports to China. [Table: see text]

A computer based approach for Material, Manpower and Equipment managementin the Construction Projects

The success of any construction project will depend on efficient management of resources in a perfect manner to complete the project with a reasonable budget and time and the quality cannot be compromised. The efficient and timely procurement of material, deployment of adequate labor at correct time and mobilization of machinery lacking in time, all of them causes delay, lack of quality and finally affect the project cost. It is known factor that Project cost can be controlled by taking corrective actions on mobilization of resources at a right time. This research focuses on integration of management systems with the computer to generate the model which uses OOM data structure which decides to include automatic commodity code generation, automatic takeoff execution, intelligent purchase order generation, and components of design and schedule integration to overcome the problems of stock out. To overcome the problem in equipment management system inventory management module is suggested and the data set of equipment registration number, equipment number, description, date of purchase, manufacturer, equipment price, market value, life of equipment, production data of the equipment which includes equipment number, date, name of the job, hourly rate, insurance, depreciation cost of the equipment, taxes, storage cost, interest, oil, grease, and fuel consumption, etc. is analyzed and the decision support systems to overcome the problem arising out improper management is generated. The problem on labor is managed using scheduling, Strategic management of human resources. From the generated support systems tool, the resources are mobilized at a right time and help the project manager to finish project in time and thereby save the abnormal project cost and also provides the percentage that can be improved and also research focuses on determining the percentage of delays that are caused by lack of management of materials, manpower and machinery in different types of projects and how the percentage various from project to project.

Current Perspective in the International Trade of Medicinal Plants Material: An Update.

The recent years have seen an increased interest in medicinal plants together with the therapeutic use of phytochemicals. Medicinal plants are utilized by the industry for the production of extracts, phytopharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals and their use is expected to grow faster than the conventional drugs. The enormous demand of medicinal plant material has resulted in huge trade both at domestic and international levels. The trade data of medicinal plant material with commodity code HS 1211 (SITC.4, code 292.4) and their derived/related products which are traded under different commodity codes has been acquired from COMTRADE, Trade Map, country reports, technical documents etc for the period 2001 to 2014. The data was analyzed using statistical tools to draw conclusions. The significant features of the global trade; the leading source, consumer, import and export countries; and the striking trends are presented. The trade of the ten key countries and the selected important items is also discussed in detail. The conservative figure of trade of medicinal plants materials and their derived/related products including extracts, essential oils, phytopharmaceuticals, gums, spices used in medicine, tannins for pharmaceutical use, ingredients for cosmetics etc. as calculated from the global export data for the year 2014 is estimated at USD 33 billion. The average global export in medicinal plants under HS 1211 for the fourteen year period was USD 1.92 billion for 601,357 tons per annum and for the year 2014 it stood at 702,813 tons valued at USD 3.60 billion. For the studied period, an annual average growth rate (AAGR) of 2.4% in volumes and 9.2% in values of export was observed. Nearly 30% of the global trade is made up by top two countries of the import and export. China and India from Asia; Egypt and Morocco from Africa; Poland, Bulgaria and Albania from Europe; Chile and Peru from South America are important supply sources. The USA, Japan and Europe are the major consumers of the world.

Improvement of customs statistics in Georgia

Purpose of the articlePurpose of the present article is to identify drawbacks in the field of customs statistics of Georgia and to formulate concrete steps for their correction. Methodology/methodsThe methods of induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis, statistical observation and grouping have been used in the research process. The aim of the scientific work is to determine the principles for improving the statistical registration of commodity at the customs in Georgia. ResultsCountries of origin are not yet completely reflected in the cargo-customs declaration at the Georgian customs; the field ``means of transport at the border'' in the cargo-customs declaration is not filled in; data on estimated market value of the means of transport in the databases of Service Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia is not complete; detailed coding of imported vehicles is carried out incorrectly; the simplified customs declarations are not completely filled in with reference to countries, 11-digit item coding and value. In terms of registration, certain problems are caused by the fact that a sender and a country of final destination are not always filled out in the declaration. Problems exist in producing foreign trade price indices, the issue being that he information on foreign trade statistics is classified according to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System while price indices are calculated according to the classification of types of economic activity on the 4-digit level; in filling in declarations there are frequent errors related to registration of commodity code, weight and additional units of measurement. ConclusionsEmpirical data related to production of Foreign Trade Statistics are characterized with certain errors, as a part of foreign trade operations remains unregistered. It means that registered value of exports and imports does not fully correspond to the value of actual flows.

Construction of Rice Variety Indentity Using SSR Fingerprint and Commodity Information

On the base of the previous research, we selected a set of 12 rice SSR markers(one marker for each chromosome) for increasing convenience of the rice seed quality tracking and management. The fluorescent marker analysis was performed on 127 released and popularized authorized(or main plant) rice varieties in Anhui Province. Then, the rice variety ID was constructed by the SSR fingerprint with corresponded commodity information. The rice variety ID included three components: part 1 was recognized as commodity code, which reflected crop species, cultivar, breeding(or approval) region and year; part 2 was recognized as fingerprint code, which contained the variety DNA fingerprint information; part 3 was recognized as complement code(specific gene identification code), reflecting specific genetic information of cultivars. We also described the rice variety ID in the form of bar code or QR code, which might be favorable for rice seed identification and traceability management.

Commodity Coding Research and Application of Ceramic E-Commerce Platform

This paper formulates the commodity coding rules based on the commodities classification of the existing ceramic E-commerce platform, and completes coding the existing ceramic commodities of the platform and automatic coding when add new commodity or modify commodity according to the rules. This can facilitate the unified management to the commodities of the ceramic E-commerce platform greatly, and can be well realize seamless connection with the enterprise management system related to the commodities of the informatization integrated service platform for ceramic enterprises, let the enterprise management system can connect both inside and outside freely and share resources with the e-commerce platform. Finally, uses the commodity code in commodity searching, supply the lack purchasing of ceramic kit, distribution management systems of the ceramic e-commerce platform and quick searching and statistics according to the classification in commodities of the background.

A Role of Standardizing Medical Equipment Commodity Code and UCC/EAN-128 Bar Code That Medical Material Distribution Management Committee Played

A Role of Standardizing Medical Equipment Commodity Code and UCC/EAN-128 Bar Code That Medical Material Distribution Management Committee Played

Comparison of Neural and Conventional Approaches to Mode Choice Analysis

This paper describes a new approach to behavioral mode choice modeling using neuro-fuzzy models. The new approach combines the learning ability of artificial neural networks and the transparent nature of fuzzy logic. The approach is found to be highly adaptive and efficient in investigating nonlinear relationships among different variables. In addition, the approach only selects the variables that significantly influence the mode choice and that display the stored knowledge in terms of fuzzy linguistic rules. This allows the modal decision-making process to be examined and understood in great detail. The neuro-fuzzy model is tested on the U.S. freight transport market using information on individual shipper and individual shipments. Shipments are disaggregated at the five-digit Standard Transportation Commodity Code level. Results obtained form this exercise are compared with similar results obtained from the conventional logit mode choice model and the standard back-propagation artificial neural network. The advantages of using the neurofuzzy approach are described.

FREIGHT MODE CHOICE MODELS USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

This paper presents a new approach to behavioral choice modeling using artificial neural networks (ANNs). A feed-forward network trained by a back-propagation learning algorithm is used in this study. As a modeling technique, ANNs are highly adaptive and very efficient in dealing with problems involving complex interrelationships among many variables. The application of ANNs in the development of mode choice models is tested on the U.S. freight transport market using information on individual shippers and individual shipments. Shipments are disaggregated at the 5-digit Standard Transportation Commodity Code (STCC) level, representing the most detailed information publicly available. Results obtained from this exercise are compared with similar results obtained from conventional logit and probit disaggregate mode choice models. ANNs produced slightly better results compared with both logit and probit models. A method for analyzing ANN results based on examining variable link weights is described. The method allows for increasing the efficiency of ANNs by selecting only those input variables which significantly contribute to the network output. ANN mode choice models are expected to behave equally well in the passenger transport market, both in the urban and intercity travel contexts.

Object-Oriented Methodology for Materials-Management Systems

Materials-management systems should be integrated with computer systems that are used for design and scheduling. In addition, many materials management systems would benefit from integration efforts that would facilitate rule-based reasoning. These enhancements are facilitated by the use of an object-oriented methodology (OOM) data structure for the materials-management system. This paper discusses an OOM data model as it would apply to piping commodity materials. The paper also discusses the attributes incorporated into an OOM materials-management tutorial that was evaluated by industry professionals. Tutorial attributes include automatic commodity code generation, automatic takeoff execution, intelligent purchase order generation, and components of design and schedule integration. As part of their evaluation industry reviewers noted that OOM not only facilitates the development of more versatile systems, but also results in a computer code that is far easier to generate and less expensive to maintain.

Uniform commodity code under study

Uniform commodity code under study