Insights on global transport and insurance costs of merchandise trade
This paper presents the 2024 version of the OECD International Transport and Insurance
Cost of Merchandise Trade (ITIC) database, offering insights into bilateral international
transport and insurance costs across more than 200 countries and their trading partners.
Covering over 1 200 products from 1995 to 2022, the database combines officially reported
information with estimates based on a gravity model. The model operates at a detailed
six-digit Harmonised System (HS) product code level, subsequently aggregated into
four-digit HS product code categories for analysis. The findings of ITIC 2024 indicate
that the COVID-19 pandemic had a more significant impact on international transport
and insurance costs for trade between countries located in different continents compared
to trade between partners within the same continent. Additionally, they confirm that
trade costs have exhibited a declining trend during the study period, and that the
CIF/FOB margins vary among different reporting entities, trading partners, and products.