UN Comtrade

UN Comtrade is the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, a long-running public resource for international merchandise trade data. It is mAIntained within the UN statistical system and is wIDEly used by economists, analysts, journalists, students and policy researchers who need to examine how goods move between countries. Rather than being a Generative AI product, it is a structured data service, so it pairs well with analytical and research workflows that may also involve AI-assisted tools.

What it does

The platform stores reported import and export statistics subMITted by national statistical authorities and organizes them by reporting country, partner country, commodity classification and year. Users can query the database through a web interface to retrieve trade values, quantities and related indicators. Because the underlying figures come from official national reports, coveRAGe and detail can differ from one country to another.

Key capabilities

• Bilateral trade lookup: explore flows between a reporting Economy and its trading partners.
• Commodity breakdowns: filter records using Standard trade classifications to focus on specific product groups.
• Time Series Access: compare annual and, where available, monthly figures across multiple years.
• Bulk download and API-style access: retrieve larger datasets for offline analysis, subject to platfORM limits.
• Public documentation: reference notes and metadata help users interpret classifications and reported values.

Who it is for

UN Comtrade is most useful to academic researchers, government analysts, trade consultants, supply chain specialists and data journalists. It also supports classroom work in economics and international relations. Users should be comfortable with tabular data and bASIc statistical concepts, since interpreting trade classifications and reconciling figures across reporters requires some care.

How to get started

1. Open the Comtrade website and review the available query options.
2. Choose a reporting country, partner, commodity code and time period.
3. Preview the results, then export or download the data for further analysis.
4. Check the accompanying Metadata to understand classification revisions and reporting gaps.

Pricing and access caveat

The service is Generally presented as a free public resource supported by the United Nations, though registration or usage limits may APPly to bulk downloads and API access. Interface features, data coverage and access conditions may change over time, so verify current terms on the official site before relying on the database for time-sensitive work.