How are agents and brokers in trade treated in ISIC Rev. 5?

Agents and brokers in trade in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, are treated as intermediaries who arrange sales of goods without taking ownership of those goods. They act on behalf of buyers or sellers, negotiate or arrange transactions, and earn a fee or commission for arranging. The classification treats this arranging work as distinct from wholesale and retail trade, because the wholesaler or retailer buys and resells, while the agent or broker never owns the goods being sold. Rev. 5 gives intermediation clearer recognition across the economy, including in trade.

Who pays the intermediary, and for what exactly?

In ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, payment tells a large part of the story. An agent or broker is paid a fee or commission for arranging a sale, rewarding the arranging itself: finding a buyer or a seller and bringing the two sides together. It is not a margin from buying low and selling high, because the intermediary never buys the goods. A wholesaler or retailer, by contrast, earns by owning goods for a time and then reselling them.

That distinction runs through every item described in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, for this kind of work. Agents arranging wholesale sales on behalf of sellers act for the seller while the goods stay with the seller until the buyer takes them. Brokers matching buyers and sellers of goods do the matching without stepping into the chain as owners. Commission agents for agricultural and other goods, where described in Rev. 5, work on the same basis, with commission rather than resale profit as the reward. Intermediaries arranging trade without holding stock complete the picture: no warehouse of their own goods, no purchase invoice in their name, and no resale price set by them as owners.

What does the produce broker example show about ownership?

Take the produce broker from the original description and slow the scene down. A grower has fruit ready to sell. A retailer needs fruit for shoppers. The broker talks to both sides, helps agree the quantity and the terms, and takes a commission when the sale is arranged. At no point does the broker own the fruit. The grower still owns it until the retailer buys it, and the retailer then owns it and sells it on to shoppers. That chain matters for statistics because it keeps two different jobs apart. Arranging the grower-to-retailer sale is one job. Buying fruit and selling it to shoppers is another job, and the retailer performs that second job.

Market knowledge and advice on timing do not turn arranging into reselling, because the test in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, turns on ownership and on the fee or commission basis. If the same person bought the fruit, stored it, and sold it at a higher price, the description would change to buyer and reseller.

Why does a wholesaler who gives advice stay outside this description?

A wholesaler who buys stock and resells it at a margin is not an agent, even if the wholesaler also offers advice. Advice alone does not remove ownership. The wholesaler owns the goods between purchase and sale, carries them as stock, and sets a resale price. The agent does none of those things as owner. The question for the Rev. 5 description is therefore narrower: did this business own the goods it helped to sell, and was it paid by margin or by fee or commission? A business that arranges some sales and buys and resells others performs more than one kind of work, and its record needs the fuller picture held by the office that holds it.

Where does national practice fit when an arrangement looks mixed?

Where agents and brokers in trade meets a boundary, national practice may shade the answer, above all where a country has a large local industry or organises the service distinctively. The international description in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, remains the shared reference, but the national version and the statistical office guidance show how that reference is applied locally. A reader who needs a formal record should read the Rev. 5 publication in full, check the national version, and ask the office that holds the record how the arranging work is recorded there.

Every code statement about agents and brokers in trade here rests on the UN Statistics Division classification detail and the ISIC Rev. 5 publication in the frontmatter.

This guide only explains a statistical grouping in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division. It does not fix your code, your principal activity, or your registration, and if you need any of those settled, the national statistical institute or the business register holding your record is the place to confirm them.