Trade Statistics Knowledgebase » Knowledgebase » UN Merchandise Trade » UN Comtrade Data » Introduction

First Time User

comtrade_admin — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:22:20 GMT

What is UN Comtrade?

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/Knowledgebase/What-is-UN-Comtrade

Why and How to subscribe?

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/Knowledgebase/Why-and-How-to-subscribe

Free Access to UN Comtrade:

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/Knowledgebase/Free-Access-to-UN-Comtrade

How to query data from UN Comtrade?

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/Knowledgebase/How-to-query-data-from-UN-Comtrade

Check Data Availability:

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/Knowledgebase/Data-Availability-in-UN-Comtrade

Search for help

In general, we advise you to consult first the UN Comtrade Knowledge Base (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/Knowledgebase/) for questions related to use of UN Comtrade, definitions of terms or interpretation of data. If you do not find your answers, please write to comtrade@un.org for further information.

What is UN Comtrade?

comtrade_admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:33:52 GMT

UN COMTRADE is the pseudonym for United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database. Over 170 reporter countries provide the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) with their annual international trade statistics data detailed by commodities and partner countries. These data are subsequently transformed into the United Nations Statistics Division standard format with consistent coding and valuation using the UN/OECD CoprA internal processing system.

The UN COMTRADE is the largest depository of international trade data. It contains well over 1.7 billion data records for 45 years and is available on the internet!

All commodity values are converted from national currency into US dollars using exchange rates supplied by the reporter countries, or derived from monthly market rates and volume of trade. Quantities, when provided with the reporter country data and when possible, are converted into metric units. Commodities are reported in the current classification and revision (HS2002 in most cases) and are converted all the way down to the earliest classification SITC revision 1. Therefore, if data is received in HS 2002 version, it is converted to HS1996, HS1988, SITC rev. 3, SITC rev. 2, SITC rev. 1 and BEC. The data are permanently stored in the UN COMTRADE database server.

Commodities are classified according to SITC (Rev.1 from 1962, Rev.2 from 1976 and Rev.3 from 1988), the Harmonized System (HS) (from 1988 with revisions in 1996, 2002 and 2007) and Broad Economic Categories (BEC).

Time series of data for reporter countries starts as far back as 1962 and goes up to the most recent completed year. Current data is published annually in the International Trade Statistics Yearbook and can be purchased through the UN Sales Department.

The UNSD holds the copyright to COMTRADE data. All rights reserved. Users cannot disseminate COMTRADE raw data without the express permission of the UNSD.

For further information, see UN Comtrade Manual Sets

Browser Warning: UN Comtrade works best with Internet Explorer Web Browser. In other browsers, some pages might not work properly.

Comtrade User Guide

comtrade_admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:31:12 GMT

UN Comtrade User Guide includes:

UN Comtrade Coverage and Limitations
Database Usage License Agreement and Policy on Re-dissemination
Subscription
Frontpage
Shortcut Query
Data Query and Extraction
Data Availability
Support
Metadata and Reference Manual

See attachments.

UN Comtrade DATA: http://comtrade.un.org/

UN Comtrade and UNData

comtrade_admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:29:20 GMT

UNdata is the United Nations Data Access System which gives access to current, relevant and reliable statistics for free. The service is provided by the United Nations to users of data around the world. It offers easy access to data compiled and produced by United Nations agencies as well as other organizations.

UNdata is not replacing UN Comtrade. UN Comtrade is a very comprehensive database for intermational merchandise trade statistics containing around 1.7 billion trade records in 9 classifications up to 6 digit level of the classification. In addition, the COMTRADE interface offers many more features that are specific to this large trade statistics dataset, e.g. the search by partners and reporters to create mirror images.

UNdata contains only around 40 million trade records only in 2 digit HS 1992 classification and searchable only by reporters.

http://comtrade.un.org/