NAICS was developed to reconcile different systems created by Canada, Mexico and the U.S. to classify industries and products. Sometimes older systems are still in use in Canada so we now have different classification systems appearing. Also, Canada, the U.S., and Mexico have variations on the NAICS classification, and these exist in some sources.
This link opens in a new windowFinancial Performance Data provides detailed business and industry reports to help new and existing businesses to make informed decisions. A Government of Canada resource.
Annual Statement Studies : Financial Ratio Benchmarks by The U.S. government created a Standard Industrial Classification system to classify U.S. industries for statistical purposes. Publishers of trade directories found the SIC as a convenient way of subject indexing their directories.
Canadian trade directory publishers also used the U.S. SIC for this purpose because so many Canadian manufacturers and distributors had business dealings and other connections with U.S. companies.
Because of differences between the U.S. and Canadian economies, the U.S. SIC was not suitable for Canadian statistical reporting purposes. Statistics Canada, therefore, created two Canadian SICs, one (SIC-E) for "Establishments" (factories, plants, mills, etc. within a company) and another (SIC-C) for "Companies and Enterprises" which were used in Statistics Canada data products.
The U.S. and Canadian SICs have been largely replaced by NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) but they continue to be used in directories and other information sources.
The HS is an international classification used by 207 countries or economic unions worldwide for imported and exported commodities. The basic commodity code is six digits long. This has been expanded in Canada to 8 digits for exports and 10 digits for imports.
Data Sources using HS
The industry classification system created by the United Nations Statistics Division.
ISIC documentation
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