: Active Threads

getCountrylist webservice

ram — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:29:28 GMT

http://comtrade.un.org/ws/refs/getCountryList.aspx

The country list (XML Output) from above URL contains Countries and Country groups (or) Regions.

Q’s:

- Why is the above URL returning both Countries and Country groups (or) regions? It should return the countries only.

- Is there any webservice to get the country list by excluding the groups (or) regions?

- Is there a flag in the XML output (from the above URL) to determine the group (or) region?

- Can we pass any parameter to the above URL to filter the Countries?

200980 exported from Mexico to the world between 1999-2008

admin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:38:31 GMT

I was trying to find the volume of HS Code: 200980 exported from Mexico to the world between 1999-2008. The results came through and I would just like to query the 2008 result as the figure jumps dramatically from 57,375,640kg in 2007 to 246,689,288kg in 2008 whereas the trade value has decreased from $33,328,007 in 2007 to $33,211,003. Thank you in advance

Cant access database

lygea — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:06:59 GMT

Is there a different login system to the database and to the forums? When I try to retrieve data, it returns a message:

The query will return 28011 records.
It's not recommended to view it on screen (1000 records limit).
Please modify your query (or select additional selection from below) or click download (not applicable for guest user).

The system classifies me as a guest user and I'm not able to login with the same password as to the forums.

Thank you.

Trade between two countries with no interest on industry breakdown

Giansoldati — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:48:59 GMT

Good afternoon,

I tried more than once to extract simple trade data between two countries, let's say France and Morocco, as a whole, with no industry breakdown, but I did not succeed. I am just interest in the overall trade value, imports and exports, along a selected time span, namely between 1997 and 2007.

Probably, I am not able to construct the right query.

I would be very grateful if someone could help me on this matter.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Marco Giansoldati

Someone MAY want to remove this person from the site...

janglebeezz — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:23:35 GMT

http://comtrade.un.org/cf/user/Profile.aspx?UserID=6445

NSFW content.

.xls

janglebeezz — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:31:12 GMT

Please forgive me for I am a computer moron, how can I open a file that ends with .xls? I found the file in the downloads section of this site but I am so far unable to get her open.

Thanks in advance.

Is the database server down right now ?

piriya — Fri, 11 May 2007 12:10:50 GMT

I can't access to the database. Any ideas how come?

Or when the database will be accessable again?

or is it only me that has the problem ?

Thank you

Thailand imports from Thailand itself?

annehao — Mon, 25 May 2009 05:40:04 GMT

Hi, anyone could explain the following dataset drawn from UNcomtrade? Is there anything wrong with the database?

Period	Trade Flow	Reporter	Partner	Code	Trade Value	NetWeight (kg)	Quantity Unit	Trade Quantity	Flag
2002	Import	Thailand	Thailand	TOTAL	$950,559,887	N/A	1	N/A	0
2003	Import	Thailand	Thailand	TOTAL	$1,096,112,052	N/A	1	N/A	0
2004	Import	Thailand	Thailand	TOTAL	$1,086,007,588	N/A	1	N/A	0
2005	Import	Thailand	Thailand	TOTAL	$1,368,554,571	N/A	1	N/A	0
2006	Import	Thailand	Thailand	TOTAL	$1,453,256,950	N/A	1	N/A	0

Free Zones as Partner

pitigala — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:38:06 GMT

When "free zones" are listed as a partner country, does it refer only to free zones in the Reporter country or ALL free zones worldwide?

China and India

hpsll19 — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:54:33 GMT

In the contrade database,how to get the detailed import datas of the main countries from China and India?

Trying to understand re-exports

chongman99 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:06:50 GMT

Question:

Are re-exports counted as imports?

Should re-export > imports always be true?

Background/Discussion:

I know from the knowledgebase article (link below) that re-exports are counted as exports. Hence, it should always be true that re-exports>exports. So I happily calculate:

exports_dometically_produced=exports - re-exports

Re-exports are also foreign goods that are initially imported and then re-exported. Everything else is domestically consumed. As an identity:

imports = imports_consumed + imports_re-exported

Since all of the above quantities are positive, re-export > imports should always be true, right?

However, in the data, I find several examples where it is not true. See trade from reporter=USA to partner=WORLD, HS2002 classification, year=2005:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

| commod~y tradev~1 tradeva~2 tradev~3 reexpo~t ratio_~t |

|------------------------------------------------------------------|

1. | 2842 41713321 1.321e+08 83700280 .4814195 2.00656 |

11. | 5001 12575 159729 30726 .1783244 2.443419 |

37. | 3205 5454728 62185489 7849886 .1160535 1.439098 |

607. | 8602 3504956 4.266e+08 6956311 .0161718 1.984707 |

867. | 2307 2167 2982164 24753 .0082943 11.4227 |

|------------------------------------------------------------------|

1052. | 1202 155049 1.308e+08 500366 .0038195 3.227148 |

1154. | 2603 475832 3.631e+08 495131 .0013618 1.040558 |

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

(copy and paste into a fixed-width font for proper vieweing)

The commodity is the 4 digit HS2002 code. 1=import, 2=export, 3=re-export, ratio=3/1

Some possible answers:

1. It may be possible that an item imported solely for re-export isn't counted as an import.

2. It may be possible that re-export value is higher than import value, because of trader markups.

3. It may be possible that items re-exported were imported in an earlier year.

4. Maybe there is a rule that if the good is modified minimally (less than 50%), than the good can count as re-export.

Any advice is appreciated.

This KnowledgeBase article has ample information:

Q10152 - INFO: Distinction between Exports and Re-exports / Imports and Re-imports

http://comtrade.un.org/kb/article.aspx?id=10152&query=re-import

but does not answer my question.

Looking for Specific Commodity

divchi4387 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:32:45 GMT

Under the Commodity code 3603 Safety fuses; detonating fuses- I do not know if this contains military or automotive detonators because I do not need them since the country I am researching on does not export military or automotive detonators. What do I do to search this commodity in more detail.

Oil prices used for calculation of trade value

MariaB — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:32:52 GMT

For a research project at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg I am working with export trade value data for Commodity 33101 (CRUDE PETROLEUM) on SITC Rev.1 for all countries and need to compute its ratio to total exports and GDP. Comtrade trade value is given in USD, net weight in kg. I have noticed that different oil prices are used for different countries in a certain year (according to my calculations of trade value/quantity units). As I need to calculate own trade value data for the years with missing Comtrade data (based on export data from the UN Statistical Yearbooks given in net weight), I need to know how Comtrade derives the trade value in USD from a given trade quantity. Does anyone know which oil prices are used for this calculation or where to find this information?

Thanks

problems with saving favorites and downloading

postgraduate — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:27:05 GMT

There are problems with saving favorites, when making a requests and downloading files when triing to download their results, using direct downloads. Please write about the reasons of it and what can I do to solve the problem. Internet Explorer opens the page with the message about failure. It writes, that Internet Explorer can not show the page both when saving and downloading.

Hi, I am experiencing some problems when accessing your database, anyone could help?

annehao — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:52:56 GMT

http://comtrade.un.org/db/

Here is the error message: (It's been showing this message this entire afternoon....)

Server Error in '/db' Application.

Server Too Busy

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: Server Too Busy

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[HttpException (0x80004005): Server Too Busy]
   System.Web.HttpRuntime.RejectRequestInternal(HttpWorkerRequest wr) +148

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:1.1.4322.2407; ASP.NET Version:1.1.4322.2407

Single User - Online Subscription

mpdata — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:25:46 GMT

I have just signed up online but it doesn't appear my subscription is active yet - how long does it take for a subscription to become available?

Strange values

Andrea Colombo — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:06:16 GMT

Good evening everyone.

I need urgent help for two problems:

1) as someone has just reported, I found values for import from Brazil to Brazil or from China to China and so on, for other type of country. Is there any problem with the dataset? What happens?

2) I have noted that when there's a missing value, UNcomtrade drops the entire "row" of the dataset. For example: if there's not trade values for Italy and Canada, I don't find a row in the dataset which indicates the missing value. This is a huge problem for me that I've to have a dataset with 50x50 values for 11 years. I can't correct by my hands the entire dataset! Is there a way to avoid dropping by UNComtrade of missing-values rows?

Thank you very much. Have a nice evening.

Andrea Colombo

uneven codes for iran's export data

amin maaleki — Sat, 09 May 2009 10:27:29 GMT

Wonder if any one can help me with this issue

in iran when i look at iran's export data i see some HS codes that don't have correspondent code in UN tables. for example see this table:

as you know, in UN table we dont have 10100 code for SITC conversion and originally begin with HS 10110. this problem repeat in some other codes.

how can i solve it? please help me !

year	hs code
1992	10100
1993	10100
1994	10100
1994	10100
1995	10100
2003	10110
2006	10110
2006	10110

Imports; SITC, rev. 1; reporter: Netherlands; partner: Cameroon; Year: 1962

mfgassi — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:05:43 GMT

Hi everybody,

I am a student of 'European Union Studies' at Salzburg University (Austria) and make use of the COMTRADE database for my master's thesis. I really need the historic data, then. I encounter the following problem:

When checking imports in the SITC, rev. 1 classification, for reporter: Netherlands, for partner: Cameroon, for Year: 1962, I get the following quantity in AG0 (total)

14,603,189 US$

However, when checking the same query for 072 (cocoa) the number is

23,130,692 US$

How can the number for cocoa only be so much bigger than the total?

Ghana 2007, unusual growth

markie — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:54:30 GMT

I also would like to draw your attention about Ghana exports 2007 reported
in Comtrade. The product codes 15, 20, 19 and 11 are in the top six sectors
exported by Ghana in 2007 and the annual growth rate for these sectors is
above 1000 %. The growth of these sectors is not reflected when we check
mirror data.

South African Apricot 2007

markie — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:44:20 GMT

A Trade Map user has pointed out that South Africa's export
quantities for apricot (HS 080910) looks too big in 2007 and he is
right. This outlier quantity has also been taken into account in the
aggregates at 4 and 2-digit level. I have checked the COMTRADE data
and I have found the same quantities.

question about searching within exports; Value Added

markie — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:32:39 GMT

We subscribe to UN Comtrade and I have a particular question about
searching the database. I have a student who is searching for "the
percent of net exports which comes from value-added manufacturing"
for both Columbia and Mexico.

I see that in Data Query Basic Selection Others, one can select
re-Export separate from Exports. However, when I go to the
Glossary, I see re-Export defined as "exports of foreign goods in
the same state as previously imported." However, when I look in the
definition of Exports, I see three types of exports listed,
including "(b) Domestic goods comprised of compensating products
after inward processing," which I believe represents the portion of
exports that the student wants to measure.

It is there any way to break this out in a search? Do you keep
track of that category separately (maybe it could be retrieved in
some other way outside of Comtrade)? If you do not, do you know of
any other entity that might be able to provide this type of data?

Unit value of Wire of iron/non-alloy steel, plated/coated with zinc, Fw: Trademap Query. Code 721720; Malaysia 2007

markie — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:45:42 GMT

I have however, spotted some odd data in the category:

List of importing markets from Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) for a product exported by Malaysia
Product : 721720 Wire of iron or non-alloy steel, zinc plated/coated".

That shows unit values varying from USD$4.40 and US$59 per tonne,
whereas the world and other is US$241 to US$1,123 per tonne.

I think there are some errors in the Australian data in particular.
Would you look into that please

> As it happens however, the 2007 data at comtrade.un.org is also, and
> remains incorrect.
>
> For example, the exports of Malaysian 7217.20 to World calculates to
> US$241 per tonne or US 24 cents per kg (this is from US$53,916,363
> value divided by 223,494,812kg), but Australia calculates to US$58.
> 86 per tonne or US 6 cents per kg (this is from US$6,089,260 value
> divided by 103,425,592kg).
>
> In fact the whole data set is wrong, as the unit value per tonne
> will actually be somewhere around US$900 per tonne or more – a fact
> I am sure about as we make that particular galvanized wire product 7217.20
>
> Is it possible for the correct Malaysian 7217.20 export data to be found?

Philippines 2007 data; big 999999 values

markie — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:36:56 GMT

My company subscribes to your comtrade database and I have a  question about it: I have noticed that for the Philippines, a large
proportion of 2007 trade is lumped into category 99 ("Commodities  not elsewhere specified") - that is, a third of exports and a
quarter of imports; will you be fixing this at some point? I can   find no reference to this in your country-specific documentation.
Thanks a lot,
Toby

UN Comtrade Alerts

admin — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:29:40 GMT

After performing the query I get alerts. How do I stop them and prevent them for the next time?