Hong Kong external trade comprises merchandise trade and trade in services of Hong Kong with external parties.

Merchandise Trade

External merchandise trade statistics cover movements of merchandise between Hong Kong and her trading partners, by land, air, water and by post. Movements of exempted articles, gold and specie are not included.

Hong Kong's external merchandise trade statistics are compiled based on information contained in import/export declarations. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is a separate customs territory, as stated in "The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China". Import/export declaration is also required of Hong Kong's merchandise trade with the mainland of China, and statistics relating to this are included in Hong Kong's external merchandise trade statistics.

Imports of goods are goods which have been produced or manufactured in places outside the jurisdiction of Hong Kong and brought into Hong Kong for domestic use or for subsequent re-export as well as Hong Kong products re-imported. Their values are recorded on c.i.f. (cost, insurance and freight) basis.

Retained imports of goods refer to those imported goods which are retained for use in Hong Kong rather than being re-exported to other places. The value of retained imports of goods is derived by subtracting the estimated import value of re-exports of goods from the value of imports of goods. The former is obtained by removing an estimated re-export margin from the value of re-exports of goods. The Census and Statistics Department regularly conducts a survey of re-export trade, based on which the rates of re-export margin for different categories of goods are estimated for deriving retained import statistics. Retained import statistics are subject to revision when the latest estimates on rates of re-export margin become available.

Domestic exports of goods are the natural produce of Hong Kong or the products of a manufacturing process in Hong Kong which has changed permanently the shape, nature, form or utility of the basic materials used in manufacture. Their values are recorded on f.o.b. (free-on-board) basis.

Re-exports of goods are products which have previously been imported into Hong Kong and which are re-exported without having undergone in Hong Kong a manufacturing process which has changed permanently the shape, nature, form or utility of the product. Their values are recorded on f.o.b. (free-on-board) basis.

Total exports of goods comprise domestic exports and re-exports.

Total merchandise trade refers to all the movements of merchandise between Hong Kong and her trading partners, by land, air, water and by post. It comprises imports, domestic exports and re-exports of goods.

Statistics on domestic exports of goods classified by industrial origin are derived by re-grouping the merchandise domestic export items originally grouped under the external trade classification system according to the industries in which these merchandise items are normally produced. Transactions in gold and specie are excluded. Caution should be taken when referring to these domestic export statistics classified by industrial origin. There may be several intermediate processing stages in the production of certain merchandise domestic export items. In compiling the statistics, the total value of such an item has however been wholly related to the industry in which the item is finally produced. Domestic export statistics of a particular industry may include products which are produced as secondary products by establishments of other industries.

The value index, unit value index and quantum index measure the changes in value, prices and volume of external merchandise trade respectively. As from June 2002, the merchandise trade index numbers have been updated. The new series has year 2000 as the base year. In the new series, indices for periods prior to 2000 are obtained by re-scaling the previously published series, which has 1990 as the base year, using a conversion factor derived from the levels of the old and new series in the overlapping period of 2000.

In the seasonally adjusted merchandise trade statistics series, seasonal effects have been removed statistically to enable more meaningful shorter-term comparison to be made. When the year-on-year changes of the monthly figures in the original trade statistics series and the change of the latest 3-month period over the preceding 3-month period in the seasonally adjusted trade statistics series are analysed together, the possible variations in trend of external trade performance can be more clearly discerned.

Trade in Services

Trade in services (TIS) refers to exports of services and imports of services. Exports of services are the sales of services to the rest of the world, whereas imports of services are the purchases of services from the rest of the world.

Imports and exports of services represent transactions between "residents" of the economy of Hong Kong and "non-residents". According to international statistical standards, residents of an economy refer to organizations which ordinarily operate in the economic territory, and persons who normally stay in the economic territory.

Imports and exports of services are classified into different types of services, including transportation services, travel services, insurance services, financial services, merchanting and other trade-related services, and other services. Details regarding the coverage of the six major service groups are given below :

Hong Kong's TIS transactions with the mainland of China are treated as external transactions and included in Hong Kong's TIS statistics.

Hong Kong's TIS statistics are compiled based on data collected via various sources, including establishment and household surveys, administrative records and other data sources.