Standard International Trade Classification

The Standard International Trade Classification is a classification system maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division. The system is used to provide a standardized classification of imported and exported goods, in order to make it feasible to compare sets of import/export data regardless of country, and to have accurate data about international trade. Although Revision 4 of the classification was written in 2006, Revision 3 remains the standard in international usage. Both versions follow the same essential hierarchy, with each digit adding further detail: the first digit indicates the Section; the second, the Division; the third, the Group; the fourth, the Subgroup; and the fifth, the Item. Zero and two Roman numerals are used in order to create 12 sections with single digits.

The first two levels of the hierarchy begin with the following items:

• 0: Food and live animals
  • 00: Live animals other than animals of division 03
  • 01: Meat and meat preparations 02: Dairy products and birds' eggs 03: Fish (not marine mammals), crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic invertebrates, and preparations thereof
  • 04: Cereals and cereal preparations 05: Vegetables and fruit 06: Sugars, sugar preparations and honey 07: Coffee, tea, cocoa, spices, and manufactures thereof
  • 08: Feeding stuff for animals (not including unmilled cereals)
  • 09: Miscellaneous edible products and preparations
• 1: Beverages and tobacco 11: Beverages 12: Tobacco and tobacco manufactures
• 2: Crude materials, inedible, except fuels
  • 21: Hides, skins and furskins, raw
  • 22: Oil-seeds and oleaginous fruits
  • 23: Crude rubber (including synthetic and reclaimed)
  • 24: Cork and wood
  • 25: Pulp and waste paper
  • 26: Textile fibres (other than wool tops and other combed wool) and their wastes (not manufactured into yarn or fabric)
  • 27: Crude fertilizers, other than those of division 56, and crude minerals (excluding coal, petroleum and precious stones)
  • 28: Metalliferous ores and metal scrap
  • 29: Crude animal and vegetable materials, n.e.s.
• 3: Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials
  • 32: Coal, coke and briquettes
  • 33: Petroleum, petroleum products and
  • related materials
  • 34: Gas, natural and manufactured
  • 35: Electric current
• 4: Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes
  • 41: Animal oils and fats
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  • 42: Fixed vegetable fats and oils, crude, refined or fractionated
  • 43: Animal or vegetable fats and oils, processed; waxes of animal or vegetable origin; inedible mixtures or preparations of animal or vegetable fats or oils, n.e.s.
• 5: Chemicals and related products, n.e.s.
  • 51: Organic chemicals
  • 52: Inorganic chemicals
  • 53: Dyeing, tanning and coloring materials
  • 54: Medicinal and pharmaceutical products
  • 55: Essential oils and resinoids and perfume materials; toilet, polishing and cleansing preparations
  • 56: Fertilizers (other than those of group 272)
  • 57: Plastics in primary forms
  • 58: Plastics in non-primary forms
  • 59: Chemical materials and products, n.e.s.

The first two levels continue with the categories of (6) Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material, (7) Machinery and transport equipment, (8) Miscellaneous manufactured articles, (9) Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC, and the categories for gold, which are (I) Gold, monetary, and (II) Gold coin and current coin.