Foreign trade is the system by which countries exchange goods and services. Countries trade with each other to obtain things that are of better quality, less expensive or simply different from goods and services produced at home. The goods and services that are bought from other countries are called imports. Foreign trade has a significant share of the region’s Gross Regional Domestic Product and the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
CAR’s Imports and Exports
- The Free on Board (FOB) value of import goods of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in January 2020 amounted to $85,711,258, while export goods had an FOB value of $58,371,593.
Volume and Value of Imports and Exports, CAR:
January 2020
IMPORTS
The top 10 import commodities account for 98.4 percent of import cost
- In January 2020, there were 41 commodities imported by the region with gross weight of 485,015 kilograms.
- The top 10 import commodities recorded a total FOB value of $84,108,684 with 414,932.1 kilograms total gross weight. This translates to 98.1 percent share to the total value of imports of the region.
- Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers and parts and accessories of such articles accounted the largest share of import goods with 44.4 percent to the total import value of the region.
- Aircraft, spacecraft, and parts thereof ranked second with 24.5 percent share or equivalent to $21,003,441 in total payments.
- Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof which contributed 15.7 percent share, ranked third top import goods of the region, incurring a total cost of $13,449,592.
- Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere (reserved for special uses by contracting parties) came fourth sharing 7.1 percent or equivalent to $6,115,540 expense value.
- Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking, precision, medical or surgical instruments and apparatus; parts and accessories thereof were the fifth top imported commodities with 3.1 percent share to total imports. These incurred a total payment of $2,687,655.
- The remaining 5 top import commodities include plastics and articles thereof (1.4 percent), iron and steel (0.5 percent), albuminoidal substances; modified starches; glues; enzymes (0.5 percent), organic chemicals (0.5 percent), and aluminum and articles thereof (0.4 percent).
Value of imports from the United States of America is the highest
- United States of America recorded the biggest supplier of import commodities of CAR in January 2020 with a total value of $25,231,675.
- The Republic of Korea was the region’s second top trading partner with value of imports amounting to $18,645,947.
- Japan came third, with total imports valued at $11,736,981.
- Taiwan (Republic of China) was the top four supplier of import goods of the region with $10,684,049 expense receipts.
- Imports from the People’s Republic of China added $5,690,866 to the total value of the regional imports making it as the region’s fifth top trading partner.
- Other major import trading partners of the region were Singapore ($2,994,697), Thailand ($1,966,480), Malaysia ($1,844,056), UK of Great Britain and N. Ireland ($1,572,759), and India ($1,298,440).
Table 1. Top 10 Countries of Destination, CAR: January 2020
EXPORT
Electronic motors and generators are top exported commodities
- The region’s top 10 export commodities earned a total value of $58,352,739. These commodities accounted for 99.97 percent of the total export sales receipts of the region.
- Aircraft, spacecraft, and parts thereof ranked first, with the highest share recorded at 44.0 percent, and worth $25,702,188 in total receipts.
- Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers and parts and accessories of such articles ranked second with 41.2 percent share to the total value of exports or equivalent to the region’s total earnings of $24,045,762.
- Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere (reserved for special uses by contracting parties), which ranked third, shared 12.0 percent to the total value of exports of the region, translating to $7,004,965 worth of goods.
- Natural or cultures pearls, precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals, metals clad with precious metals and articles thereof; imitation jewellery; coin ranked fourth with 1.3 percent share or equivalent to $745,602 in total sales receipts of the region.
- Toys, games and sports requisites; parts and accessories thereof were the fifth top exported goods with 0.9 percent share valued at $536,075.
- Other top 10 exported commodities for January 2020 were articles of iron and steel ($151,249), articles of leather; saddlery and harness; travel goods and, handbags and similar containers; articles of animal gut ($67,595), plastics and articles thereof ($54,421), rubber and articles thereof ($23,995), and aluminum and articles thereof ($20,887).
United States of America accounts for 24.3 percent of the region’s export sales
- Among the trading partners of the region, exports to the United States of America had the highest value with $ 14,194,023. This is equivalent to 24.3 percent share to the regional total value of export goods.
- Netherlands came second with $7,793,215 export value or a share of 13.4 percent.
- Commodities exported to the People’s Republic of China registered a value of $7,024,974 or a share of 12.0 percent, making it the third top trading partner of the region.
- France and Singapore remained top four and five, consistent with the previous month with exports values of $ 6,946,251 and $ 6,401,268, respectively.
- Other trading partners such as Hongkong (Rep. of China) (6.7 percent), Japan (6.2 percent), Germany (5.4 percent), UK of Great Britain and N. Ireland (3.3 percent), and Taiwan (Rep. of China) (2.5 percent) registered a value $14,104,569. These comprised 24.2 percent of the region’s total value of exports for the month of January 2020.
Table 2. Top 10 Countries of Origin, CAR: January 2020