Foreign trade includes activities of all entrepreneurial entities, legal and natural persons involved in exports and imports in the form of merchandise.

Foreign trade statistics generally cover the movement of goods in and out of the Slovak Republic intended for domestic consumption and for processing and subsequent re-exportation. In the total export, included are goods permanently leaving the territory of the Slovak Republic or goods leaving the territory for processing and subsequent re-importation.

Since the accession of the Slovak Republic into European Union (EU), i.e. since May 1, 2004, foreign trade statistics have been composed of data from the EXTRASTAT system and the INTRASTAT system. The EXTRASTAT system furnishes information on the exchange of commodities with non-member countries of the EU based on documents prescribed for customs procedure; the INTRASTAT system contains information on commodity transactions with EU Member States as partner countries obtained from statistical surveys.