This document discusses merchandise trade, which refers to the trade of goods between countries, excluding services. It provides definitions of key terms like imports, exports, trade balance, and discusses how merchandise trade is measured and reported by various agencies. It also notes that while merchandise trade deficits can indicate economic trends, they do not fully capture trade in services and it is important to consider the overall trade balance.

1. REPORT
On
MERCHANDISE TRADE
Merchandising is the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and
sustain certain categories of commercial activity. In the broadest sense,
merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail
consumer.
In marketing, one of the definitions of merchandising is the practice in which the
brand or image from one product or service is used to sell
another. Trademarked brand names, logos, or character images are licensed to
manufacturers of products such as toys or clothing, which then make items in or
emblazoned with the image of the license, hoping they'll sell better than the same
item with no such image.
In the supply chain, merchandising is the practice of making products in retail
outlets available to consumers,
Merchandise Trade definition -
Goods which add or subtract from the stock of material resources of a country by
entering (imports) or leaving (exports) its economic territory. Goods simply being
transported through a country (goods in transit) or temporarily admitted or
withdrawn (except for goods for inward or outward processing) do not add to or
subtract from the stock of material resources of a country and are not included in
the international merchandise trade statistics. In many cases, a country's economic
territory largely coincides with its customs territory, which is the territory in which
the customs law of a country applies in full.

2. The two trade concepts-
Customs-based trade statistics cover the physical movement of goods as
they are reflected on customs documents. Thus, they only cover merchandise
trade. Various product coding systems are used to classify the traded goods.
Balance of Payments (BOP)-based trade statistics are based on the flow of
money. The balance of payments (BOP) is an accounting of a country's
international transactions over a certain time period, typically a calendar
quarter or year. It shows the sum of the transactions (purely financial ones,
as well as those involving goods or services) between individuals,
businesses, and government agencies in that country and those in the rest of
the world.
These statistics cover both merchandise trade and trade in services.
Merchandise trade only includes trade in goods, not services nor capital transfers
and foreign investments. Official merchandise trade statistics measure the level,
month-over-month and year-over-year changes in total trades, exports and imports.
Balance of merchandise trade is equaled to total exports minus general imports.
Exports are defined as total exports which include 1. Domestically produced goods
and 2. Re-exports, that are re-exporting of goods which are imported and
warehoused in U.S. General Imports constitute of imports for immediate
consumption channels and warehouses. Merchandise trade is reported in current
U.S. dollars with no inflation adjustments. Merchandise trade report is published
by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census and Foreign Trade
Division (FTD).
While merchandise trade can be used as an indicator of the overall health of the
economy, one must be cautious and avoid misinterpreting merchandise trade
deficit as trade deficits. This is because trade deficit is sometimes used
interchangeably with merchandise trade deficit, deficit in goods and services or
current account deficit. Deficit in goods and services includes significant economic
services such as tourism, financial services, transportation, and
telecommunications. Therefore, it is important to distinguish that merchandise
trade only refers to trade in goods whereas trade deficit can also refer to deficit in
goods and services or current account deficit. In this case, even if U.S. is running a

3. merchandise trade deficit that does not mean the economy is not doing well
because it can be a net importer of goods but a net exporter of services.
Merchandise trade as a share of GDP is the sum of merchandise exports and
imports divided by the value of GDP, all in current U.S. dollars.
INDIA 2007 2008 2009 2010
30.5 42.4 30.6 31.7
India’s merchandise trade is on way to touch $750 billion in the FY`12, accounting
for 68 per cent of the country’s $1.1 trillion economy which is fast integrating with
the rest of the world.
The DGCI&S reports that merchandise trade exports touched $176.6 billion in
2009/10 which was 4.7 per cent less than in 2008/09. Because of currency
fluctuations, the value of exports show a smaller decline in rupee terms and the
rupee value of merchandise exports in 2009/10 is actually almost the same as in
2008/09. The value of merchandise imports in 2009/10 was 8.2 per cent lower at
$278.7 billion and 4 per cent lower in rupee terms.
Advance Release calendar
SDDS Data Unit of Period of Latest Previous Percentage
Category Description Latest Data Data Data Change
and Component from
previous to
latest
period
Total Exports US $ Aug,2010 16644 13586 22.5
(f.o.b) Million
Total Imports US $ Aug,2010 29679 22449 32.2
(c.i.f) Million
Total Trade US $ Aug,2010 -13035 -8862 47.1
Balance of Million
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