About the TCB Database

Overview

TCB has been an important part of donor activities for the past two decades, particularly since the launch of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Development Agenda. Because of the cross-cutting nature of TCB, standard measures of foreign assistance do not adequately reflect trade efforts. To remedy this information gap, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) surveys its own Missions and all U.S. Government agencies annually for reports on their TCB activities. Each year, previous data reports are verified and amended, while funding data and narrative descriptions of new activities are submitted. The ensuing annual data update provides the U.S. public and donor community with timely and informative reports on U.S. Government support for TCB around the world.

Since 2001, USAID has conducted an annual survey on behalf of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to identify and quantify the U.S. Government's TCB activities in developing countries and transitional economies. The Trade Capacity Building database offers access to the full set of that survey data, including the funding levels for the period covering FY1999–FY2014 and summary activity descriptions of each of the project activities for the period covering FY2002–FY2014.

The TCB Database is uniquely placed to meet the needs of USAID, USTR, and others. The TCB Database incorporates a broader scope of activities than other databases such as the Greenbook by including activities not only with a TCB primary focus, but also those with broader goals that have a trade-related impact. For example, in FY2014, total obligations to activities implemented by the State Department totaled $5.6 million in the "Trade Policy and Regulations" sector —as defined by the Greenbook concepts. For the same fiscal year, State reported to the TCB Database that it implemented $111.4 million in trade capacity building—as defined by the TCB Database concepts. The TCB Database also provides activity details which are unavailable in other databases, including narrative activity descriptions and a breakdown of TCB funding into more descriptive categories (e.g. Trade-related Infrastructure, Customs Operations, etc.).

History

In the summer of 2001, the U.S. Government (USG) undertook a survey of its FY1999–FY2001 programs and activities that promote trade-related capacity building in developing countries and transition economies around the world. Details of survey findings were presented in a main report and a shorter summary report that were featured at the 4th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial in Doha, Qatar in November 2001.

As a result of the commitments made at Doha, the need for current trade capacity building (TCB) data became increasingly more important. The United States updated the survey in the summer of 2002, collecting activity level data. Although a report was not produced, the data collected was reported to the WTO and the Organzation for Economic Cooperation and Development – Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) in response to their data requests for a multi-donor Doha Development Agenda Database (DDAD) on Trade-Related Technical Assistance and Capacity Building. Since that time, the DDAD has been replaced by the Global Trade-Related Technical Assistance Database (GTAD), produced by the WTO.

In the summer of 2003, the United States updated the survey once again. A brochure entitled "U.S. Contributions to Trade Capacity Building: Improving Lives through Trade and Aid" was prepared for the WTO Ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico in September 2003.

The TCB Database has been updated every year since that time.

Methodology

The Trade Capacity Building database is generated by a survey of United States Government Agencies on their trade capacity building activities and funding levels, conducted annually beginning in 2001. A technical team conducts the survey and processes the submitted data, working collaboratively with USAID’s Office of Trade and Regulatory Reform (TRR) within the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment (E3). More than two dozen U.S. Government Agencies and Departments, as well as several dozen USAID field Missions, have participated in one or all of the data collection exercises.

Survey respondents report obligations to trade capacity building activities, including the following information for each activity: funding account code, implementing agency (and sub-agency if applicable), country or region, and TCB category. For a detailed description of each of these fields, please see the Glossary.

The TCB Database records funding at the time of U.S. Government agency obligation, rather than disbursement or expenditure. Specific TCB activities vary in how long they are in operation. Therefore, the funding level does not match up with the fiscal year or years in which the activity is in operation and being funded for many of the TCB activities in the database. For example, in the case of a three-year project in a country from FY2010 to FY2012 where all of the funding is obligated in FY2010, the TCB Database would show all of the funding in FY2010, but none in FY2011 and FY2012. Large-scale activities arising from Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compacts are one such example. MCC Compacts typically run for five years but all funds for the entire life of the Compact are obligated the first year, and therefore recorded in the TCB Database for that time period. As a result, these MCC Compact obligations can result in a "spike" in obligations for a given fiscal year.

The TCB Database reports only those components of U.S. Government activities that directly build trade capacity in developing countries. In many cases, the entirety of an activity qualifies as trade capacity building based on the definitions used in this survey. In some cases, however, a survey respondent may report a fraction of total obligated funding for an activity, if only certain components of that activity build trade capacity.

The technical team reviews completed survey forms, checking for accuracy and consistency in the reporting of funding and allocation into TCB categories. Whenever a report is ambiguous or incomplete, the technical team works with the reporting U.S. Government Agency, Department, or field Mission to amend the data. In some cases in which funding flows between Agencies, some TCB-related activities may be reported by more than one Agency, Department, or Mission. The technical team checks all data for potential duplicate reporting and clarifies any possible duplication with the reporting units.

At the conclusion of each year’s survey, new data for the preceding fiscal year are released while revisions, usually modest, are made to data for the preceding years. For example, as a result of the FY2014 TCB Survey, the Millennium Challenge Corporation revised figures for FY2005-FY2013, in some cases revising the fiscal year attributed to some of its larger activities. This particular revision resulted in significant changes in overall TCB funding totals; generally, revisions made to previous years’ data are small.

TCB Categories

The categories and definitions used to measure "Trade Capacity Building" were designed by USAID in consultation with the U.S. Office of the Trade Representative and other U.S. Government Agencies, and by drawing upon the growing body of research literature covering TCB by the international donor community. Integration into the global economy is a complex and multi-faceted task for many developing countries and transition economies. Building the capacity to engage successfully in trade, as well as to negotiate effectively in international fora, involves a broad range of sectors such as financial, legal, environmental, and labor. In light of this reality, the definitions of trade capacity building categories in this database represent an effort to most accurately gauge the contribution of U.S. foreign assistance to building the trade capacity of developing countries and transition economies.

In order to preserve the integrity of the data, survey respondents were instructed to apply a rigorous standard for trade capacity building support using the definitions of the TCB categories. Activities were limited to those that related directly to increasing the ability of developing and transition countries to participate in global trade agreements, to engage more actively in trade itself, or to assure the benefits of trade are wide-spread among economic groups. For example, basic agricultural research, basic education and health programs, while certainly contributing to building national productive capacity, were not included because they lacked any direct link to trade. However, research on methods to control pests that were consistent with phyto-sanitary requirements on export crops was considered to have an impact on a country's ability to expand its participation in trade. For further information on the specific categories used in the survey and displayed on this website, please see TCB Categories in the Glossary.

Accuracy

Although data received are thoroughly checked for accuracy, relevance, and consistency, there is the possibility that not all TCB activities are fully or comprehensively recorded in the database. This stems from several reasons:

1. In order for an activity to be recorded it must be voluntarily reported by a corresponding agency. Hence, a TCB-related activity that is not reported may not be recorded in the database.
2. A corresponding agency may not have sufficient data on its activities that would enable it to submit a report at the time that data is collected. In order to control for these possibilities and enhance data integrity, several measures are taken during the annual data collection period, including a request that agencies confirm their previous year's submissions. Verified revisions are then reflected in the annual update to the TCB Database.

Significant Changes to the Database

Before the FY2011 data collection began, USAID decided to streamline the number of trade capacity building categories. Because the new system of categories represents a new category based on one or more unique old categories, it was possible to revise data for FY1999–FY2010 into the same TCB category system. Categories had been previously broadened ahead of the FY2002 data collection.

On May 16, 2005, the TCB database was revised to include two new "not specified" (ns) regions, "Eastern and Central Africa Region" and "Southern Africa Region" to include TCB activities that cannot be classified to a specific country, but are regional in scope. These new regions were added to existing regions, including "Western Africa Region." In order to add these new region codes, while keeping the survey data consistent, activities in the database from FY1999–FY2005 previously assigned to Sub-Saharan Africa Region were revised. Activities coded to Sub-Saharan Africa Region were either reallocated to Eastern and Central Africa Region or Southern Africa region, where possible. Activities that are not specific to a sub-region within Sub-Saharan Africa may still be assigned to "Sub-Saharan Africa Region".