CONFIDENTIAL COMMODITIES LIST

9.30 The International Merchandise Trade: Confidential Commodities List (cat. no. 5372.0.55.001) (CCL) contains information on all commodity based restrictions. The information is presented under the following four headings:

• changes and new restrictions to import items in the current month
• changes and new restrictions to export items in the current month
• all import restrictions from January 1988 to the current month
• all export restrictions from January 1988 to the current month.

9.31 The following information is provided in the CCL:

• Classification Codes:
  • Customs Tariff - the 10 digit code given to an import commodity at the greatest level of detail.
  • AHECC - the 8 digit code given to an export commodity at the greatest level of detail.
  • SITC - SITC Rev. 3 at the 5 digit level for data up to and including June 2005. SITC Rev. 4 at the 5 digit level from July 2005 onwards. CCL codes opening from 1 January 2012 will display 'na' in the SITC Rev. 3 column as correspondence to SITC Rev. 3 is not available. CCL codes closing before 31 December 2001 will display 'na' in the SITC Rev. 4 column as correspondence to SITC Rev. 4 is not available.
  • ANZSIC - ANZSIC 1993 at the 4 digit level for data up to and including June 2009. ANZSIC 2006 at the 4 digit level from July 2005 onwards. CCL codes opening from 1 January 2012 will display 'na' in the ANZSIC 1993 column as correspondence to ANZSIC 1993 is not available. CCL codes closing before 31 December 2001 will display 'na' in the ANZSIC 2006 column as correspondence to ANZSIC 2006 is not available.
• Deleted Date: indicates that the Customs Tariff or AHECC has been superseded and provides the date this took place. If this field is blank, the Customs Tariff or AHECC is current for the reference period.
• Date of Effect: the month in which the restriction commenced. The date of effect is always the first of the month.
• Date of Cessation: the final month for which a restriction is effective. The date of cessation is always the last day of the month.
• Restriction Applied: type of confidentiality restriction applied.
• Commodity Description: this is an abbreviated description of the goods which are included under the Customs Tariff or AHECC item.

9.32 For those items subject to a 'Selected country details', 'Selected state details', 'No state by country details', 'No state by selected country details' or 'Selected state by selected country details' restriction, the countries or states which are restricted are specified.

9.33 The most recent CCL is available in International Merchandise Trade: Confidential Commodities List (cat. no. 5372.0.55.001).


NON-STANDARD ARRANGEMENTS NOT REFLECTED IN THE CCL

Secondary Restriction (AHECC 28182000)

9.34 A 'No country details' restriction was placed on alumina in the 1970's. This is due to the value of Australia's total exports to some countries being dominated by trade in alumina. Total trade with the country is considered confidential and is therefore not released separately. For some countries, data for alumina would account for nearly all of the confidential item. The alumina component has therefore been removed from the confidential items for these countries and presented as a single aggregate 'Country confidential - alumina'.

9.35 The countries for which this additional or 'secondary' restriction applies are not listed in the CCL. For the period up to and including statistics for February 1992, the countries combined for this 'secondary' restriction were Norway, Egypt and Iceland. Between March 1992 and December 2012 (when these secondary restriction ceased), they were Bahrain, Egypt and Iceland. In addition, exports of alumina to Bahrain, Egypt and Iceland were excluded from the state totals and included in the 'State not available for publication' category.


Port Statistics - Gove and Groote Eylandt

9.36 In some instances there is not sufficient diversity in trade to allow release of data by port. In these cases it is necessary to aggregate data for some ports. In the case of Northern Territory ports of Gove and Groote Eylandt details by individual port are suppressed and shown against a 'Confidential ports - NT' code. This permits accurate totals by state to be released. As the CCL presents details of restrictions by commodity, it does not contain any reference to the restrictions for the ports of Gove and Groote Eylandt.


Confidential data removed from country and state totals

9.37 From September 2008 for imports and import clearances, and June 2013 for exports, the method used to confidentialise data changed. Data that have the confidentiality restrictions 'No commodity details' or 'No value details' are aggregated into a single confidential commodity code. For data prior to September 2008 for imports and import clearances, and June 2013 for exports, these data are added back into the relevant state total and country total (i.e. these totals show the correct level of trade).

9.38 From September 2008 for imports and import clearances, and June 2013 for exports, these confidential data are not added back. Instead the confidential data are published as 'No country details' in the country totals and 'State not available for publication' in the state totals. Therefore, country and state totals may not represent the actual amount of trade in each country/state but only the trade in commodities without a 'No commodity details' or 'No value details' restriction. The change to cease adding data back to individual categories, but maintaining it in the confidential category, applies to mode of transport, port of loading and port of discharge. This change was necessary to ensure the confidentiality of data.


Confidentiality of non-merchandise data for imports

9.39 Additional confidentiality restrictions apply to the international non-merchandise trade statistics, Customs Tariff 9999319902. This code has 'No country details', 'No state details' and 'No duty details' restrictions in place. It has been assigned a mode of transport=U (Unknown) and the data has not been added into country or state totals.