International Trade Statistics and Where to Get Them


Finding reliable sources of international trade statistics has been a problem for many. Until 1987, both the US and Canada had their own export classification systems. The US had agreed in 1967 to make their statistical base compatible with the United Nations Classification System know has the Harmonized Schedule (HS). Twenty years later this finally became a reality. Despite all the world’s major trading countries being on the same classification system, we still face the realities of stale, outdated statistics which are never quite as targeted as you would want them to be.

The proliferation of the Internet has made the task a lot less daunting than it once was. The purpose of this article is to explore the various sources available and to provide a brief overview of each site.

We strongly suggest that you also review our new series of usage guides for four of the most important websites that you'll use:

Geographic Area

URL

Description
Africa http://www.afdb.org/ Statistics from the African Development Bank by Country
Canada http://www.statcan.gc.ca/ Statistics Canada is the country's national statistical agency, with programs organized into three broad subject matter areas: demographic and social, socio-economic and economic.
Canada http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/ Strategis is the official website of the Canadian Government. The nice thing about this site is that it gives you the chance to access US Govt. Trade statistics by 6 digit HS number and to be able to graph your information. Search by either HS code or product.
Europe http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/ The official statistics website of the European Economic Commission
India http://164.100.9.245/  Government of India Trade Statistics
Japan http://www.miti.go.jp/ JETRO / MITI industry statistical reports
South and Central America http://www.iadb.org/  Statistics from the Inter American Development Bank
USA http://www.fas.usda.gov/ US Foreign Agriculture Service’s U.S. Export/Import Statistics for Bulk, Intermediate, and Consumer Oriented (BICO) Foods and Beverages
USA http://www.ita.doc.gov/data.asp Global Data Links - Sources of data about international trade and other macroeconomic activity, selected by the staff of the Office of Trade and Economic Analysis.
USA http://www.census.gov/ US Bureau of the Census International Trade Statistics
Worldwide http://unstats.un.org/unsd/comtrade/ Comtrade is a product of the United Nations Statistics Division.  Comtrade is a complex statistical database with numerous ways to retrieve and view data.  Comtrade provides commodity trade data for all available countries and areas since 1962. Currently, it contains almost 700 millions records.  Please see Using Comtrade to Find Worldwide Trade Flow.
Worldwide

 

 http://www.aneki.com/  aneki.com is dedicated to promoting wider knowledge about the world's countries and regions. It is a one stop location for quickly gathering basic information. Our website offers the most comprehensive source of continental and world rankings in an increasing number of categories. Our proprietary resource enables a visitor to obtain immediate answers to basic questions about any country in the world.  Based on CIA Factbook.  * For more information please contact: info@aneki.com 
Worldwide http://dataweb.usitc.gov/  International Trade Commission’s Trade DataWeb . Enter a specific HTS, SIC, or SITC item and get data in an instant. Example: enter quick query, select all commodities, Chile, 6-digit aggregation, sort by value, and get the top 10 values, all other, and total-- in an instant.
Worldwide http://www.worldbank.org/ The World Bank offers comparative data on over 180 countries in a variety of formats.
Worldwide http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/ University of Minnesota’s collection of links to international agricultural statistics.
Worldwide http://www.fao.org/corp/statistics/en/ The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, as part of its mandate, compiles information and data on various aspects of food and agriculture from all countries.
Worldwide http://ciber.bus.msu.edu/ Michigan State University CIBER collection of statistical sources
Worldwide http://www.lib.pdx.edu/ International Marketing - Statistical Sources, a Portland State University Business Guide
Worldwide http://www.intracen.org/  Worldwide Export Import stats by 3 digit HS codes – also offers country profiles
Worldwide http://www.ita.doc.gov/  US Department of Commerce’s Office of Trade and Economic Analysis
Worldwide http://hsb.baylor.edu/  Baylor University’s Economic and Social Data Sources
Worldwide http://www.singstat.gov.sg/ Singapore Department of Statistics, 100 High Street #05-01, The Treasury, Singapore 179434, Fax: 65-3327689, Email : info@singstat.gov.sg - excellent collection of worldwide links.
Worldwide http://www.library.yale.edu/ Yale University’s Internet Access to UN Information by Research Topic: International Trade.
Worldwide http://www.xist.org/  Listing of international statistical sources from Xist.org, the Netherlands.

For further information or assistance in identification or interpretation of international trade statistics, please contact your nearest office of the US or Foreign Commercial Service.

 

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Date Updated: December 23, 2012



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