Potential of XBRL Dimensions for International Trade Statistics

Standardization of financial reporting is desirable to reduce the administrative burden on companies. To achieve this, the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has been developed. Almost 60% of the administrative burden on companies by Statistics Netherlands is caused by surveys about product trade between EU countries. Trade data cannot be filed in XBRL yet, because of the complexity of the Combined Nomenclature, the EU classification of traded products. Here, we describe a prototype of a dimensional XBRL taxonomy that enables reporting of trade concepts specified by product, using the recent XBRL Dimensions 1.0 specification.