Foreign trade statistics record the movement of goods imported and exported across the borders of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Foreign trade statistics primarily record the quantities and values of imported and exported goods by type of goods and country. However, other data is also collected that is of fundamental interest in connection with the physical movement of goods.
You can use the GENESIS-Online information database to call up monthly and annual foreign trade results according to various goods classifications in different data formats (xlsx, xls, csv, html).

The most important survey characteristics for publication include

• Commodity code,
• value,
• quantity,
• country of origin,
• Country of dispatch on import,
• country of destination on export,
• Type of transaction,
• Federal state,
• mode of transport.

A distinction is made in foreign trade statistics between

• Intra-trade statistics (Intrastat), the recording of trade in goods with countries within the European Union (EU), and
• and extra-trade statistics (Extrastat), the recording of trade in goods with countries outside the EU (trade in goods with third countries).

The Federal Statistical Office collects data on the cross-border movement of goods either

• through your declaration as a company obliged to provide information (intra-trade)
• or via the customs administration (extra-trade).

Companies subject to VAT that are involved in the intra-Community movement of goods are obliged to report for the intra-Community trade statistics. However, to ease the burden on companies, a declaration threshold is set on the basis of EU regulations or national law on the degree of coverage. Only if your company exceeds the registration threshold is it required to report for intra-Community trade statistics for the year in question and the following year.