Shipments valued below the Electronic Export Information filing threshold are not required to be reported with a specific commodity code. Census aggregates these low-value flows under 9880 to maintain complete trade totals without requiring line-item detail for every small shipment.

Canada and the US exchange trade data under a data-sharing arrangement. When Canadian export data arrives after the US monthly reporting cutoff, Census estimates and records those flows under 9880 as late receipts, then revises the figures in subsequent releases once the actual data is incorporated.