Trade in Environmental Goods

Imports of environmental goods comprise all environmental goods entering the national territory. A relatively high share of environmental goods imports indicates that an economy purchases a significant share of environmental goods from other economies. Exports of environmental goods comprise all environmental goods leaving the national territory. A relatively high share of environmental goods exports indicates that an economy produces and sells a significant share of environmental goods to other economies. An economy’s environmental goods trade balance is the difference between its exports and imports of environmental goods. Comparative advantage is a measure of the relative advantage or disadvantage a particular economy has in a certain class of goods (in this case, environmental goods), and can be used to evaluate export potential in that class of goods. A value greater than one indicates a relative advantage in environmental goods, while a value of less than one indicates a relative disadvantage. Sources: Department of Economic and Social Affairs/United Nations. 2022. United Nations Comtrade database. [https://comtrade.un.org]. Accessed on 2023-06-28; International Monetary Fund (IMF) Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS). [https://data.imf.org/dot]. Accessed on 2023-06-28. World Economic Outlook (WEO) Database. [https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2022/April]. Accessed on 2023-06-28; IMF staff calculations. Category: Cross-Border Indicators Data series: * Comparative advantage in environmental goods * Environmental goods exports * Environmental goods exports as percent of GDP * Environmental goods exports as share of total exports * Environmental goods imports * Environmental goods imports as percent of GDP * Environmental goods imports as share of total imports * Environmental goods trade balance * Environmental goods trade balance as percent of GDP * Total trade in environmental goods * Total trade in environmental goods as percent of GDP Metadata: Sources: Trade data from UN Comtrade Database ([https://comtrade.un.org/]). Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) 2017. Trade aggregates from IMF Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) ([data.imf.org/dot]). GDP data from World Economic Outlook. Methodology: Environmental goods imports and exports are estimated by aggregating HS 6-digit commodities identified as environmental goods based on OECD and Eurostat, The Environmental Goods & Services Industry: Manual for Data Collection and Analysis, 1999, and IMF research. Total goods imports and exports are estimated by aggregating all commodities. Environmental goods trade balance is calculated as environmental goods exports less environmental goods imports. A positive trade balance means an economy has a surplus in environmental goods, while a negative trade balance means an economy has a deficit in environmental goods. Total goods are estimated by aggregating all commodities. Comparative advantage is calculated as the proportion of an economy’s exports that are environmental goods to the proportion of global exports that are environmental goods. Total trade in environmental goods is calculated as the sum of environmental goods exports and environmental goods imports. This measure provides an indication of an economy’s involvement (openness) to trade in environmental goods. National-accounts basis GDP at current prices from the World Economic Outlook is used to calculate the percent of GDP. This measure provides an indication of an economy’s involvement (openness) to trade in environmental goods. [Methodology Attachment] [Environmental Goods Harmonized System Codes]