United Nations Statistics Division EGM, May 2015 Status of work on the Central Product Classification (CPC) Ver.2.1

Background  The Expert Group at its meeting in 2011 agreed to undertake an update of the Central Product Classification (CPC) during the scheduled review for  It was emphasized that this would be an “update” only, not a “revision”, focusing on improving the detail and structure of the classification in selected areas only and at low levels of the classification only.

Background  A detailed proposal listing of the changes to be made to the CPC has been provided to the Statistical Commission in 2012  A complete draft of the finalized CPC Ver.2.1 structure and explanatory notes have been presented to Statistical Commission for adoption in 2013.

Sources for changes in CPC  Changes in the CPC were based on (a) a regular assessment of the impact of the 2012 amendments to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS), which forms the building blocks for sections 0-4 of CPC; (b) an assessment of the linkages between CPC and the Standard International Energy Product Classification (SIEC), with a view to improve the comparability of the two classifications (c) a proposal by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to adapt the detail of CPC in selected areas of agriculture and food products to allow for CPC to be used directly for data collection in agricultural statistics; and (d) feedback received on CPC issues in the Statistics Division Classifications Hotline *

Problems  The conclusion of a number of issues related to energy statistics was postponed and will be taken up again for the next scheduled review in  This is a result of detailed discussions that have revealed definitional problems that need to be clarified with users of the energy product classification and may require adjustments within that classification.  Making changes to the CPC based on the current definitions of the energy product classification would have been premature and could have resulted in unnecessary deviations from established CPC standards.

List of issues  There was a list of 43 issues considered, of which 6 were characterized as “issues requiring conceptual discussion”, 15 as “Issues requiring clarification (details, links, formulation)” and 22 as “Issues that seem straightforward”. One issue may affect many classes/subclasses  9 issues remained as “unresolved”, mostly related to the link between CPC and the energy product classification  A few others were raised by the Voorburg Group, but with insufficient follow-up to have them included. They should be reviewed for the next update. Example: Detail for recyclable materials  An additional issue (related to outsourcing) has been raised in the TSG and took some time to resolve. This too might need review later on.

House-cleaning tasks  The following were carried out as final exercises Final review of explanatory notes Manual check of cross-references in exclusions  About 1,500  Text editing etc. Review of correspondence tables  CPC 2.1 – HS 2012, CPC 2.1 – CPC 2, CPC 2.1 – ISIC 4  Supporting materials (introduction, annexes) have been completed

What is pending?  Completion of some agreed edits E.g. exclusion in fishery products  Final check for trade services  Publication