CIF/FOB margins

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.