Advancing UN Comtrade for physical trade flow analysis: Addressing the issue of missing values

Zhang, Zhihe; Jiang, Zhihan; Chen, Chuke; Zhang, Xu; Wang, Heming; Li, Nan; Wang, Peng; Zhang, Chao; Ma, Fengmei; Huang, Yuanyi; Qi, Jianchuan; Chen, Weiqiang

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106525

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In our previous work, we addressed these issues, and an improved database 32 is provided. Details about our estimation methods can be found in publications 33 – 35 . As UN Comtrade lists 5,039 different commodity types (in 6-digit HS0 commodity code), yet only 18 material types are specified in the China EW-MFA, UN Comtrade statistics need to be aligned to the China EW-MFA framework.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

China economy-wide material flow account database from 1990 to 2020

Chen

et al. 2022

Sci Data

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Material utilisation has been playing a fundamental role in economic development, but meanwhile, it may have environmental and social consequences. Given China’s rapid economic growth, understanding China’s material utilisation patterns would inform decisions for researchers and policymakers. However, fragmented data from multiple statistical sources hinder us from comprehensively portraying China’s material utilisation dynamics. This study harmonised China-specific official statistics and constructed a China economy-wide material flow accounts database. This database covers hundreds of materials and more than 30 years (1990–2020) from thousands of data sources, which is comprehensive, long-term, up-to-date, and publicly accessed. This database would provide insights into the historical metabolic dynamics of China’s economy with elaboration on the production, consumption, and end-of-life disposal of materials. This database also allows for international analyses since it is developed based on an internationally standardised analytical framework. Furthermore, this study would benefit studies on policy impact evaluation, environmental pressure assessment, and sustainable development strategies.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

China economy-wide material flow account database from 1990 to 2020

Chen

et al. 2022

Sci Data

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“…To address known data-quality issues in the database 23 , this workflow integrates an outlier analysis using clustering and statistical methods to identify erroneous trade records and a subsequent mirror analysis to reconcile asymmetric bilateral transactions, leading to 66,156 records after data treatment. Some previous studies conducted additional data treatment techniques such as extrapolating missing values by using estimated unit price 23,24 and applying weighted-average methods or statistical treatment for a mirror analysis 21,25,26 . These additional techniques are not applied in this study, because we wanted to keep as much of the raw data from the UN Comtrade database as Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01158-w since the 1970s due to its suspected carcinogenicity to humans 36 .…”

Section: Continuing Large-scale Global Trade Of Hazardous Chemicalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuing large-scale global trade and illegal trade of highly hazardous chemicals

Zou

Wang

et al. 2023

Nat Sustain

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Pollution caused by anthropogenic chemicals contributes to interlinked planetary crises, together with climate change and biodiversity loss. One of the key treaties adopted to regulate the transboundary movements of hazardous chemicals is the Rotterdam Convention, which created a framework for countries to better handle the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals. To date, research examining the effectiveness of the Convention has been scarce. Here we analysed 66,156 trade records from the United Nations Comtrade database using a workflow that comprehensively addresses data-quality issues in the database. We found that for 46 listed chemicals, at least 64.5 megatonnes were traded in 2004–2019, and illegal trade was prevalent, reaching at least 25,324 trade records and 25.7 megatonnes. For over 70% of the listed chemicals, the Convention has played a positive role, but large-scale trade of some well-known chemicals such as tetraethyl and tetramethyl lead continues. Concerted efforts are warranted to improve how highly hazardous chemicals are traded globally, including enhancing enforcement of the Convention, addressing illegal trade and swiftly listing problematic chemicals (for example, chrysotile asbestos) in the Convention.

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