International Business: Trade data

Suggestions for international market research, and finding information about different countries.

Library databases

Data collected by the OECD and other NGO's are organized by classification codes such as the SITC. Here's more information about these classification codes.

Main Economic Indicators
Economic data from the OECD member countries, and 6 developing countries. Mostly 1950's - present.
Our subscription ended in 2021.

Passport This link opens in a new window
On first use only, acknowledgement of privacy and security policy required.
Data, reports and analysis about countries, industries, companies and consumers. Includes: economic and social data for ~200 countries; market research reports for ~80 countries; company and consumer profiles. We do NOT subscribe to the Sustainability module.
Video demo on how to search in Passport.
Economic and social indicator data redistributed from IMF, UN, World Bank, OECD. Annual data only.

Trade data from the US government

Foreign Trade Data (Census Bureau)
GATS database from the USDA
GATS stands for 'Global Agricultural Trade System'. It provides international agricultural, fish, forest and textile products trade statistics dating from the inception of the Harmonized coding system in 1989 to present. Also includes BICO (Bulk, Intermediate, and Consumer-Oriented) reports.
Exporter Database (Dept of Commerce)
Provides data on exports of small and medium-sized firms ... data on exports from US metro areas and their trade partners and more.
International Trade Administration - Data & Analysis (ITA)
ITA is part of the US Dept. of Commerce. Lots of data here ...
State Export Data (Export.gov)
TradeStats Express
Also from the OTII, data on US exports at the national and state levels. This is a neat site that allows mapping ...

About trade data

In general, you can find trade data in one of two configurations:

Country of destination (trade partner) and value
Commodity (product/service) and value

Finding the three-way combination of trade partner, product and value is much harder! And it usually means that the data are not very detailed.

Reference books ...

Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook by International Monetary Fund
Call Number: Ref HF 1 .D574x
Current edition in Raynor Reference; older eds. on Memorial Lower Level East
The IMF does provide some free, macro-level data here. Sigh ...
International Trade Statistics Yearbook by United Nations
Call Number: Raynor Ref HF 91 .U473
Trade (imports and exports) by country and by commodity. Organized by SITC codes.
Current edition in Reference, older editions housed on Memorial Level 4 Upper.
UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
Call Number: HF 1016 .U54a
Location: current edition in Ref, older eds. on Memorial 4 Upper.
This is one of the few sources where you can find some data on trade partner, commodity, and value!