Data Availability & Interpretation

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

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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

Data Compatibility Reporters and Partners

colomboaleman — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:47:29 GMT

I am conducting a research on the Intra-Middle East overall trade volume. For this, I gathered export and import data between GCC countries. However, export and import data do not match, i.e. UAE exports to Saudi Arabia are very far from Saudi Arabia imports from UAE. Am I mistaken or should't they be in the same ballpark area? The differences are so significant that they cannot be a result of currency conversions, etc.

I would appreciate an answer.

Double Data Output

MaFo — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:01:46 GMT

Hello,

I am trying to make a data export like this:

Selected classification: SITC Rev.4
Selected commodities: 784 (Parts and accessories of the motor vehicles of groups 722, 781, 782 and 783)
Selected reporters: ASEAN, Asia, Europe, North Africa, North America, Oceania, OPEC, Other Africa
Selected years: 2007
Selected partners: ASEAN, Asia, Europe, North Africa, North America, Oceania, OPEC, Other Africa
Selected trade flows: Import, Export

My problem is in the results:

I often become two ore more outputs for one relationship, p.e.

Period	Trade Flow	Reporter	Partner	Code	Trade Value	NetWeight (kg)	Quantity Unit	Trade Quantity	Flag


2007	Export	ASEAN	Asia	784	3.394.081.615	372.255.444	1	N/A	4
2007	Export	ASEAN	Asia	784	129.828.794	23.399.647	8	23.399.647	6
2007	Export	ASEAN	Europe	784	120.976.019	10.953.430	1	N/A	4
2007	Export	ASEAN	Europe	784	183.339.524	22.358.254	8	22.358.254	6

what should I do? Should I add the Trade Values? Should I ignore on of the output data?

And Second, can I find country group definitions online?

It would be great to become some support.

Kind Regards Peter B

classification of isic

liushengpiaoxu — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:17:45 GMT

i need the data of china's export ,but i found the data in COMTRADE is classfied in SITC or HS, i hope to know could i get the data classified in ISIC anywhere? many thanks

Country Codes

ram — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:31:02 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?

Data availability - 2007

Priya — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:43:28 GMT

To whom it may concern:

My name is Priya and I work on commodity developments in Latin America at the International Monetary Fund. In order to do so, we have been putting together information from WITS, using the SITC Classification 3. We have been getting data on commodities with partner countries = World or with partner countries = China for our purposes.

The WITS system only has data up to 2006. We are in urgent need of 2007 data so we can discuss how countries have responded in 2007 to the food and other price shocks.

Would it be possible to let us know the following: 1) what data is available right now on 2007 for Latin American countries; 2) could we access this information, even though it is only preliminary?

Thank you very much,

Priya

data information

genniao_83 — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:14:00 GMT

I am using import and export values between US and China, and EU and China,1989 to 2006
for my projects from SITC Rev.3, based on 3 digital calculation.
However, there are some values are not avaiable, such as, 011: Meat of bovine animals,
fresh, chilled or frozen, there are no value for this sector. I am wondering that means
no trade betwenn those countries, or means no information provided.

Import data from same country

Johannesgobot — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:20:35 GMT

Hi,

I've downloaded a trade data table consisting the whole world trade and only Import Export data (not "Re-Import" and "Re-Export").

Now, about 30 of the 140 countries are reporting Import data to themselves which means that Reporter and Partner are the same (f.e. Albania to Albania) and this tradevalue is nonzero.

How can I interprete this tradevalue?

Thank you in advance

Johannes

USA: need help in gathering information

ahuneeu1 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:01:40 GMT

Hi there

I am planning a report on the role of USA in the international trades. My report will be including several things, which i now intend to write down so you guys can help me out giving me useful information. I'm a college student so my knowledge on these subjects is very limited so i need as much help as i can get.

Well, here it goes:

- Which are USA's greatest needs in terms of imports?? Which things do they import the most and who are the suppliers (the countries)??

- Which are USA's main exports?? To which markets to these exports arrive? Who are the main customers of these imports?

- I need to write down the commercial links between the US and the following countries. Which would you say are the greatest dependencies?? How vulnerable and sensitive are these relationships?

The list of countries is:
Brasil
France
Japan
China
Egypt
South Africa
Indonesia
Mexico
Mozambique
Spain
Nigeria
Peru
Vietnam
Thailand
Australia

I need the links and how dependant are the relations with all of these countries.

- Which are the USA's main political restrictions when it comes down to international trading? (i.e. which are the protectionist groups in the US)

- Five possible important negotiations that the US could achieve with any of these countries.

- A brief description of the strategies used in order to accomplish these negotations and achieve the commercial goal.

I know this is a lot of work but for well informed people like you there shouldn't be so much problems on questions that are pretty straightforward and not that complex or deep.

Thank you very much,
Anibal

zero trade value

MAMIKA — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:06:11 GMT

I use in my Recherche bilateral import data (between two countries). How can I distinguish between zero trade value and just unavailable observation?

Coffee Data pre-2002

stef792 — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:26:04 GMT

I am having MAJOR difficulty getting hold of coffee data (EU coffee imports, and the key countries from which it imports coffee). COMTRADE has given me this data for 2002 onwards, but I ideally want to have data from 1985-2005. Does anyone have any idea of possible sources for this? Or is it available on COMTRADE and im just not accessing it correctly.

Thanks!

NetWeight (kg)

Pelletier — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:32:52 GMT

What is the occurence of weight values in the trade statistics? Is it rarely available ?

Every time I do a query, I never get weight values.

thank you

data availability

dami — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:09:43 GMT

Dear sir/madam

I was working on your data regarding chemical products and was surprisd to find out that many products were not reported in the dataset (at least for the period I was interetsed in, that is 1995-2004). These are the data in HS6(6digits) within NAFs (3digits) hat seems to be missing:

- 241 N : 400211, 400219, 400220, 400231, ...

- 241 G : 290341, 290342, 290343, 290344, 290345, 290346, 290347, 290349,
290545, 290551, 290559, 291431, 291439, 291440, 292146, 292231, 292239,
292243, 292244, 292512, 293291, 293292, 293293, 293294, 293295, 293299,
293332, 293333, 293341, 293349, 293372, 293391, 293399, 293491, 293499,
380290, 380300, 380510, 380520, 380590, 380610, 380620, 380630, 380690,
380700, 382311, 382312, 382313, 382319, 382370.

- 241 E : 250300, 281640, 284161, 284169, 284800

- 241 C : 320611 et 320612

- 241 L : 390512, 390521, 390529, 390530, 390591, 390599

- 241 N : 400211, 400219, 400220, 400231, 400239, 400241, 400249, 400251,
400259, 400260, 400270, 400280, 400291, 400299.

Do you have any clue? Are these missing figures due to null flows or to other factors?

dami