An import is a good brought into a jurisdiction, especially across a national border, from an external
source. The party bringing in the good is called an importer.[1][2] An import in the receiving country is
an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial
transactions of international trade.
In international trade, the importation and exportation of goods are limited by import quotas and
mandates from the customs authority. The importing and exporting jurisdictions may impose
a tariff (tax) on the goods. In addition, the importation and exportation of goods are subject to trade
agreements between the importing and exporting jurisdictions.
Imports" consist of transactions in goods and services to a resident of a jurisdiction (such as a
nation) from non-residents.[3] The exact definition of imports in national accounts includes and
excludes specific "borderline" cases.[4]. Importation is the action of buying or acquiring products or
services from another country or another market other than own. Imports are important for the
economy because they allow a country to supply nonexistent, scarce, high cost or low quality of
certain products or services, to its market with products from other countries.
A general delimitation of imports in national accounts is given below:
An import of a good occurs when there is a change of ownership from a non-resident to a
resident; this does not necessarily imply that the good in question physically crosses the frontier.
However, in specific cases national accounts impute changes of ownership even though in legal
terms no change of ownership takes place (e.g. cross border financial leasing, cross border
deliveries between affiliates of the same enterprise, goods crossing the border for significant
processing to order or repair). Also smuggled goods must be included in the import
measurement.
Imports of services consist of all services rendered by non-residents to residents. In national
accounts any direct purchases by residents outside the economic territory of a country are
recorded as imports of services; therefore all expenditure by tourists in the economic territory of
another country are considered part of the imports of services. Also international flows of illegal
services must be included.
Basic trade statistics often differ in terms of definition and coverage from the requirements in the
national accounts:
Data on international trade in goods are mostly obtained through declarations to custom
services. If a country applies the general trade system, all goods entering the country are
recorded as imports. If the special trade system (e.g. extra-EU trade statistics) is applied goods
which are received into customs warehouses are not recorded in external trade statistics unless
they subsequently go into free circulation of the importing country.
A special case is the intra-EU trade statistics. Since goods move freely between the member
states of the EU without customs controls, statistics on trade in goods between the member
states must be obtained through surveys. To reduce the statistical burden on the respondents
small scale traders are excluded from the reporting obligation.
Statistical recording of trade in services is based on declarations by banks to their central banks
or by surveys of the main operators. In a globalized economy where services can be rendered
via electronic means (e.g. internet) the related international flows of services are difficult to
identify.
Basic statistics on international trade normally do not record smuggled goods or international
flows of illegal services. A small fraction of the smuggled goods and illegal services may
nevertheless be included in official trade statistics through dummy shipments or dummy
declarations that serve to conceal the illegal nature of the activities.