Trade data

Data coverage

• reported vs. mirrored: One key distinction in trade data is between the reporting country and the partner country. Usually, the official sources of a reporting country provide the best data about the country's own imports and exports. If this information is not available, trade data analysts often rely on "mirrored" data: data about the country as a partner country listed by other reporting countries. In other words, analysts attempt to reconstruct information about a country's imports and exports based on what other countries have reported exporting to and importing from it. The disadvantages are that truly complete "mirrored" data would require data from every other country, and also that because of methodological differences, "country X’s reported exports to country Y rarely match country Y’s reported imports from country X."
• countries, etc.: Different sources include different numbers of countries, because not all countries report trade data at all, and for many other countries trade data is not publicly available. Some sources provide trade data for groups of countries, and some provide trade data for parts of countries.
• commodity detail: HS codes for commodities are of different lengths, with shorter codes indicating broader categories of commodities and longer codes indicating more specific subcategories. The first two digits indicate the broadest categories of commodities, the first four digits indicate subcategories, and the first six digits indicate sub-subcategories. Individual countries use even more specific and longer codes. Trade data may be provided without commodity codes, or with only two-digit HS codes. The most flexible and complete trade data sources, however, allow users to view statistical data at any level of detail: total of all commodities, international HS codes from two-digit to six-digit, and national commodity codes.
• annual vs. monthly: Sources may provide a country's annual totals without a breakdown by month, or provide trade data for each month in addition to annual totals.
• trade data tools: Some platforms also provide publicly accessible tools to help users explore trade data concepts, HS codes, and mirrored trade insights. For example, TradeInt offers educational resources on understanding import–export data, explanations of mirrored trade data, and free HS code lookup tools, including global search and country-specific HS code references such as Malaysia and Turkey.

  Uses

• Trade data can be used to assess supply and demand for particular commodities in particular countries, which is useful not only to analysts but to companies seeking suppliers and customers.
• Trade data can also reveal how international trade responds to, and has an impact on, world events such as the China–United States trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic
• Trade data can reveal general trends in world trade and impact on particular regions and industries.
• Trade data can inform government assessments of national trade partners and government regulatory decisions about international trade.