The IDB contains WTO Members' annual notifications of tariff and trade information, linked at the level of tariff lines. On the trade side, the IDB contains imports by country of origin, in value and quantity, by tariff line. On the tariff side, it contains MFN current bound duties and MFN current applied duties. Whenever provided, additional information covering preferential duties is also included. Product descriptions at the tariff line level are also part of the database.

In July 1997, the General Council decided that all WTO Members would submit import statistics and tariff information at the national tariff line level to the WTO Secretariat on an annual basis. Therefore, the information included in the IDB comes directly from national official sources and is submitted to the Secretariat through governments' WTO representatives.

The Secretariat converts the information, which should be provided in electronic form, to a standardized database format and coding scheme (country codes, quantity units, etc). The information is also cross-checked against other sources. The information is then made available to authorized users on the IDB web site, with a provisional status. The reporting country is informed of the dissemination of the provisional data and can report to the WTO Secretariat any corrections or modifications that might be required. If no revisions are reported by the reporting country, after a period of 60 days, the information is considered as approved. However, Members can report corrections and revisions to their files any time.

The information contained in the IDB is confidential and its distribution is restricted to government internal use only. The WTO Committee on Market Access (which takes all administrative and political decisions concerning the IDB) has defined the following authorized users:

· WTO Members have access to all processed information contained in the IDB;

· Acceding countries/territories have access to all processed information, provided they have submitted data to the IDB within the prescribed deadlines;

· Some International Organizations have restricted access to the IDB

Once the IDB submissions have been processed, they are disseminated by the WTO Secretariat as follows:

· The File Transfer Facility: this is the Internet site of the IDB. Access to the site is restricted to authorized users through a User-ID and password verification. User-IDs and passwords are sent to WTO delegations who are then responsible for their distribution to users. Authorized users can download the most recently processed data and other information (such as documents) prepared by the WTO Secretariat. Loading of new information is carried out on a monthly basis.

· The IDB CD-ROM: Every six months, the WTO Secretariat distributes a CD-ROM that contains the most recently processed information (tariffs, import statistics and product descriptions in the detail of tariff lines, as well as reference files). The IDB CD-ROM also contains a software application, which allows users to analyze the IDB information. Analyses can be carried out at the tariff line level (to obtain information on specific products) and at summary levels (producing for example simple and trade-weighted tariff averages for HS chapters or any group of products of interest) for an individual market. Two copies of the IDB CD-ROM are distributed to authorized users. Additional copies are available on request.

· · The Internet Analysis Facility (http://iaf.wto.org): Authorized users can access this application using the same User-IDs and passwords than for the IDB File Transfer Facility. Authorized users can produce reports directly from the Internet. Once completed, it will offer similar and enhanced functions as are available in the IDB CD-ROM and the IDB Reporting Tools.