Transport and insurance costs, usually referred to as CIF-FOB margins, are important determinants of the volume and geography of international trade. However, remarkably little (official) data exist on this, since most economies do not compile import statistics according to both the CIF and the FOB valuation at detailed product level. The OECD ITIC dataset combines the largest and most detailed cross-country sample of official national statistics on explicit CIF-FOB margins with estimates from an econometric gravity model, and thus provides information on the CIF-FOB margins for more than 190 reporters and 240 partners and over 1200 products (HS 2007 at 4 digits), covering the period 1995 to 2020.
The OECD ITIC dataset is built in four steps. First, a gravity model is estimated based on the reported CIF-FOB margins at HS 6-digit product level (available for 33 countries). Second, the gravity-model coefficients are used to derive estimates for countries which do not explicitly report CIF-FOB margins. Third, the observations that could not be estimated by the model (due to missing explanatory variables or missing quantities) are derived using standard statistical techniques. Finally, for the countries which provide incomplete time series or CIF-FOB margins at an aggregated product level only, model estimates are calibrated to the explicitly reported data. The final ITIC dataset consists of a combination of reported data and different types of estimates and includes specific codes which identify the methodology behind each observation.
This dataset constitutes an important new tool to further our understanding of global value chains and forms a crucial input to the development of coherent and balanced bilateral trade statistics.

Note:
- The Cif-Fob ratio corresponds to: (Cif value-Fob value)/(Cif value)
- The reporter country is the importer, while the partner country is the exporter.