Statistical presentation

Data description

Trade in Goods by Enterprise Characteristics is an annual measurement of enterprises involved in foreign trade and their characteristics. Up until 2022 the characteristics are economic activity, size based on number of employees, partner countries, ownership and if the enterprise is involved in only imports, only exports or both imports and exports. Additionally the concentration of the largest traders involved in external trade in goods, is also presented. For all variables both the value of trade and the number of enterprises represented are shown. Due to new dimensions of the statistics the characteristics will from 2023 and going forward be, economic activity, item, size based on number of employees and ownership. In the new dimensions, only the value of trade for the different variables will be shown.

Classification system

Economic activity: Trade in Goods by enterprise characteristics follows the Danish National version (DB07) of EU’s nomenclature NACE. The national version is a 6-digit nomenclature where the first 4 digits follow the NACE rev. 2 structure.

Sector coverage

There is no sector limits in Trade in Goods by Enterprise Characteristics.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Value: The value of the external trade is published as the so-called statistical value. For imports this value is called the cif-value (cost, insurance and freight), i.e. the value of the commodity at the Danish border or sea port, including the service costs connected to the delivery of the commodity to the Danish border, e.g. transport costs and insurance. For exports the statistical value is equal to the fob-value (free on board), i.e. the value of the commodity at the point of export at the Danish border, including the costs connected to the transport of the commodity from the exporter to the export point at the Danish border or sea port.

Number of employees: The number of employees refers to the number of persons who work for an employer and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation. A worker is considered to be a wage or salary earner of a particular unit if he receives a wage or salary from the unit regardless of where the work is done (in or outside the production unit). According to the Business Register Regulation, the intention is to use the situation at the end of the year. However, as the end date approach is not harmonised, the annual average can also be used as reference.

Partner Country: The country distribution is conducted in accordance with Eurostat's Geonomenclature classifying about 200 different countries and territories. For trade with countries outside the EU, information on country of origin (country of manufacture) is collected and for imports information on country of dispatch and for exports information on country of destination is collected. In most situations, it is information on country of origin that is applied. For trade with countries within the EU, only information on country of dispatch for imports and country of destination for exports is collected.

Type of Trade: Type of trade is an indicator which shows if an enterprise has only imports, exports or both imports and exports for a given period.

Ownership: The ultimate owner: The statistics are defining a company's ownership attached to the ultimate owner who has control over the company, i.e. have the ability to determine a company's general policy, if necessary by selecting a board. The controlling unit is the ultimate owner and holds, directly or indirectly, more than 50 pct. of equity or shareholders' voting rights. The ultimate owner must be understood in relation to the direct owner, since a company can immediately be owned (directly) from a country, even if it ultimately is owned in another country. For more information see the documentation for the statistics on foreign owned enterprises.

General trade and Special trade: General trade comprises all goods being moved into or out of the country, unless exceptions have been laid down in special rules. Thus, imports cover all goods entering the country, including goods intended for re-export or goods that are, in actual fact, re-exported. Similarly, exports cover all goods leaving the country, whether processed in the country or have previously been imported (re-export). External trade according to the special trade system excludes transactions between other countries and Danish customs bonded warehouses. Goods imported to a bonded warehouse are thus excluded from external trade based on the special trade principle and are only included when the goods are declared by the customs to Denmark.

Statistical unit

The statistical unit is an enterprise, defined as a legal unit in the period from 2010 to 2018. From 2018 the statistical unit is the enterprise unit. An enterprise can be used to collect parts of a complex company across e.g. legal units. Enterprises can be formed if it is assed that they will provide to more correct statistics. Before 2019 International Trade in Services by Enterprise characteristics used the legal unit as the statistical unit. Thus the legal unit defined the characteristic of the enterprise e.g. economic sector. Enterprises include all parts of the production process that a company has directly or indirectly ownership of. Thus, processes which have been separated in different companies, for historical or legal reasons, will be consolidated to one enterprise. For many small companies there will be no need to consolidate to enterprises and their enterprise will correspond to the legal unit. A change in the EU-legislation was the reason behind the change to enterprises as this will result in more correctly measuring the activity of the companies. Enterprises have been formed for the large and statistically most important companies.

Statistical population

The statistics cover all Danish foreign trade in Goods.

Reference area

The statistics covers the Danish external trade with the rest of the world.

Time coverage

The statistics annually covers the period from 2010 to 2018 for legal units. From 2019 and onwards the statistics cover enterprises.

Base period

Not relevant for these statistics.

Unit of measure

The statistics are disseminated in mill. DKK and number of enterprises until 2022. In the period from 2023 and going forward, the statistics are disseminated in mill. DKK.

Reference period

It is a annual statistics which follow the calendar year.

Frequency of dissemination

This statistics are disseminated annually.

Legal acts and other agreements

These statistics share legal acts with International Trade in Goods Statistics and was included in the update of this act in 2009.

• Act on Statistics Denmark (Consolidated act No. 610 of May 30, 2018) and Consolidated act No. 1495 of December 16, 2004 of the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of The European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91, with associated changes. • Commission Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004 of 18 November 2004 implementing Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States and repealing Commission Regulations (EC) No 1901/2000 and (EEC) No 3590/92, with associated changes. • Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/95. • Commission Regulation (EU) No 92/2010 of 2 February 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries, as regards data exchange between customs authorities and national statistical authorities, compilation of statistics and quality assessment. • Commission Regulation (EU) No 113/2010 of 9 February 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries, as regards trade coverage, definition of the data, compilation of statistics on trade by business characteristics and by invoicing currency, and specific goods or movements Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff. • Commission Regulation (EC) No 1779/2002 of 4 October 2002 on the nomenclature of countries and territories for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code.

For more information see the documentation of Statistics for International Trade in Goods.

Cost and burden

Not relevant for these statistics as they are based on already collected data.

Comment

Further information can be found by contacting Statistics Denmark directly.