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| Trade Data | Trade Analysis | Industry Information | Resources and References |
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FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
U.S. DATA 1. How can I easily follow basic trade trends?
1. Are online data available for Asian/Pacific nations?WORLD DATA - GOODS 1. Where can one locate an overview to world trade?WORLD DATA - SERVICES 1. Where can I locate world services data?COUNTRY BACKGROUND 1. Where can I find a quick overview about a country?
1. What are some government sites with exchange rate data?
1. Who has trade data by mode of transport?
1. What is the single best site for all types of international trade and business links?
1. Are there websites for U.S. tariff schedules?
1. What are some of the major product classification systems?OTHER 1. Can you help me with printing the FTH tables on one piece of paper?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ U.S. DATA1. How can I easily follow basic trade trends?You can review recent U.S. government news releases, including Census' monthly trade release FT-900, at the White House Economics Statistics Briefing Room (http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/esbr.html). Census' monthly FT-900, "U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services" covers total, sector, and country trade. Issues for 1994-current are available. Commerce's BEA site (http://www.bea.doc.gov) covers balance of payments, trade, and foreign investment (inward and outward). 2. What are some comprehensive U.S. government sources for U.S. trade data? The U.S. Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade) is the primary source for U.S. trade data. Free online items include: one-digit SITC trade by country, trade balances by country, a searchable Schedule-B (export codes) file, and the monthly FT-900 report. Extensive online/cd-rom data are available for a fee. Both latest month and full-year trade data for 6-digit HS products by country are available at (../Trade-Detail). The U.S. ITC provides a user defined trade data retrieval system for small data retrievals (http://dataweb.usitc.gov). 3. What are some comprehensive non-U.S. government sources for U.S. trade data? Stat-Canada (http://strategis.ic.gc.ca) maintains a copy of some monthly and annual U.S. six-digit HS product data by country for five years (free). Michigan State's website offers five years of U.S. trade data by SIC-4 code (tables are given for the HS-10 codes within the SIC-4) by world or country. A text product search is available. (http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu) 4. Do any websites contain both trade and other economic data? Commerce's STAT-USA site (http://www.stat-usa.gov) is a repository for data from 50+ U.S. agencies (fee). Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (http://www.bea.doc.gov) has extensive data. Census' site (http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/econ97.html) has started
publishing "Economic Census" data (number of establishments, sales, payroll,
and number of employees) on a NAICS basis (replaces SIC).
5. Does anyone have state or regional export data? Our site (http://www.ita.doc.gov/tradestats) contains both state (1993-latest) and metropolitan area (1993-latest) annual export data by product (free). Forthcoming: this website will have news of a new menu-driven, map-generating website for user-defined maps of the preceding data. I am unaware of any regional/state services export data. Global Trade Information Services provides monthly/annual state export data for 2-,4-,6-digit HS products (fee). (http://www.gtis.com/sti). 6. Why is it easier to find data for goods rather than for services? Goods data are available more quickly and in greater detail. 7. Can I locate trade data for services? Tables 1, 2, and 5 in the Foreign Trade Highlights (this website) provide an overview. BEA's "Survey of Current Business" (November/December) and website (http://www. bea.doc.gov) have the most detailed data. Also, the Survey has some of the most detailed U.S. and foreign direct investment data. Commerce's Office of Service Industries has various services data on its website (http://www.ita.doc.gov/sif). Annual updates occur around the end of the year. Census' FT-900 report (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade). The OCED (http://www.oced.org) site has total services data for 10 years by member country by year as a downloadable .pdf file. 8. Where can I access historical trade data? The MERITS system (http://200.38.33.143/merits/index.html) has anual trade data for ten years by country by HS product (2,4,10 digits). Census (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade) maintains copies of the FT-900 back to 1991. The "Economic Report of the President" has 10 international tables with about four for trade (http://www.ucop.edu/catalog/erp00.htm). For 1989-96 merchandise trade by country, try (http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/trade)
at the University of Virginia.
The "U.S. Statistical Abstract" has 40+ tables pertaining to foreign commerce and aid at (http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract-us.html). The Inforum site (http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Economics/EconData/Econdata.html) has several hundred thousand economic time-series of data prepared by U.S. agencies. Three of specific interest include: fortrd97.zip = foreign trade by country, intsrv.zip = international sales/purchases of private services, and bopann.zip = U.S. international transactions 1965-97 and U.S. Trade in Goods 1984-97 (has bilateral for 25+ countries). 9. Where can I locate U.S. agricultural trade data? The Agriculture Department's FASonline has trade data for five years by country and region for bulk, intermediate, and consumer oriented foods and beverages (http://www.fas.usda.gov/scriptsw/bico/bico_frm.idc). REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DATA 1. Are
online data available for Asian/Pacific nations?
The 21-member APEC (http://www.apecsec.org.sg) group has key economic indicators and forecasts for each member was well as 8-digit tariffs by both product and country. Port data are also available. The ASEAN (http://www.aseansec.org) organization has trade and macroeconomic data for its 10 members. The Asian Development Bank (http://www.abd.org) provides 1-digit SITC data for 41 countries, including Taiwan, for 1980-latest. For Hong Kong trade by product and country, try (http://www.tdc.org.hk.hkstat). 2. How can I access trade data for the Western Hemisphere? The InterAmerican Development Bank's DataIntal (http://www.iadb.org/int) has bilateral trade, with a 3-to-4 year lag, (HS-6, SITC-5, and ISIC-4 commodities) for 29 countries, including the U.S. This site also contains macroeconomic data and semi-annual country economic assessments (http://www.iadb.org/regions/re123eng.htm). 3. Where can I access European trade data? The European Commission's Europa section has trade data for both merchandise and services (http://europa.eu.int) (fee). Trade data by HS product for the EU as a total are available (fee) from (http://www.gtis.com) 4. Where can I locate trade data for the Developing Countries? The U.S. AID publishes a large annual print and web report, "U.S. Merchandise Trade with Developing Countries," with downloadable speadsheets. (http://www.usaid.gov/economic_growth/trdweb). Topics include merchandise, energy, and services trade.
Taiwan is often listed as China-Taipei rather than as Taiwan. Taiwan's Central Bank (http://www.cbc.gov.tw) has some data. Trade Point Taiwan's site (http://tptaiwan.org.tw/st) provides both trade and economic data. (free) Some OECD trade data products include Taiwan as a reporting country. (http://www.oecd.org) (fee) 6. Does any site have data for Africa? The World Bank's Africa Live Database is (free with registration) found
at (http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/afr/aftbrief.nsf).
WORLD DATA - GOODS
1. Where can one locate an overview to world trade? The WTO's (http://www.wto.org) annual press release covers recent trade trends and provides several charts/tables. Also, this site has total imports/exports by country for selected years for viewing/downloading. Some sector data is present. 2. Can I locate world exports/imports (by all countries)? The IMF's "International Financial Statistics" monthly publication (http://www.imf.org) contains country/world totals in print (fee), many libraries, and cd-rom (fee). The World Bank's "World Development Indicators" cd-rom (fee) has both merchandise and commercial services trade values for both the world and all countries. 3. Where can I locate total bi-lateral merchandise trade between countries? The IMF's "Direction of Trade" monthly contains this data and is available in both print and cd-rom form (fee). 4. Who has bi-lateral trade by product? The U.N.'s Commodity Trade Statistics Data Base (COMTRADE) is the major source (fee) covering the 100+ countries. Seventy countries usually report within one year while ninety report within two years. Data is present for 3, 4 and 5-digits using the SITC-3 classification (revisions 1, 2, and 3) and for HS-96. For online info, contact bengzonm@un.org. For cd-rom/PC-TAS products, contact itcreg@itaracen.org. The World Trade Analyzer (http://www.tradecompass.com/trade-analyzer), using U.N. data, has trade flow statistics for 160 countries for 600 commodities (SITC-2) for 1980-latest. (fee) Global Trade Information Services sells CDs with official trade data for 33 reporter countries with each of their bilateral partners with varying levels of HS product detail (http://www.gtis.com). U.S. and Chinese data are available online (fee). 5. How can I locate the major exporting/importing countries for a specific commodity. The UNCTAD/GATT site, International Trade Centre, (http://www.intracen.org) has five years data for all reporting countries for each 3-digit SITC commodity. (COMTRADE system) 6. Who has online trade data for non-U.S. countries by commodity? The UNCTAD/GATT site, cited earlier, has 3-digit SITC (Rev. 3) trade data by country. For U.S. government employees only, the TPIS site (http://www.ita.doc.gov) has U.N. data by country by SITC (Rev. 3), for 1-5 digit commodity detail. The data are available to the public from the U.N. in microfiche/tape format (fee). 7. What source has world agricultural data? The FAO-U.N. (http://www.fao.org) has 1,000,000 time-series available by cd-rom or online. WORLD DATA - SERVICES 1. Where can I locate world services data? The WTO's "International Trade Statistics" is available (fee) in both cd-rom and print media (http://www.wto.org). "Services: Statistics on International Transactions" contains data by type and country (http://www.oecd.org) (fee). The World Bank's "World Development Indicators" cd-rom (fee) has commercial services trade values for both the world and all countries. 2. Who maintains world tourism data? The World Tourism Office's site (http://www.world-tourism.org) has data (fee). COUNTRY BACKGROUND - BUSINESS PRACTICES 1. Where can I find a quick overview about a country? The CIA website/book (http://www.odci.gov) contain the annual "World Fact Book" with 2-4 pages of text/data for each country. Additionally, the site offers the "Handbook of International Economic Statistics" with a variety of tables. The E-Conflict World Encyclopedia (http://www.emulateme.com) offers extensive info on many countries, some from the CIA's "World Fact Book." 2. What sites have basic background data about a country? The World Bank site (http://www.worldbank.org/data) has 2-page summaries (pdf) of major indicators for 206 countries (181 members + 25 others). The World Bank's "World Development Indicators" cd-rom (fee) has 800 indicators for each country. The IMF's "International Financial Statistics" available in print/CD-ROM is one of the most comprehensive data sources. The joint BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank statistics on external debt are free and online. UN's Infonation (http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/infonation) allows one to select up to 4 indicators for up to 7 countries and to view the results. (30 data items for 189 countries) UNESCO's (http://www.unescostat.unesco.org) provides extensive indicators for 200+ countries in both print and CD format. The U.N. provides value-added, employment and wages by country for 3-digit
ISICs (http://www.unido.or.at/services/statistics).
3. Has anyone done competitiveness studies by country? Yes, the IMD (International Institute for Management Development) site (http://www.imd.ch) publishes an annual "World Competitiveness Yearbook" covering 45+ countries using 290 criteria. Their website presents some of the material for free. The World Economic Forum has annual rankings for current competitiveness, growth competitivesness, and ecnomic regulatory regime at (http://www.weforum.org/publications/gcr). 4. Where can I find info showing a country's best/worst trading sectors? The International Trade Centre's "National Trade Performance" (http://www.intracen.org) site has .pdf files with one-page charts/tables showing a country's best/worst trade sectors. 5. Can I find a country's world market share/rank by product? The International Trade Centre (http://www.intracen.org/itc/ site has world shares for 3-digit SITC products and the country's top-three trading partners for that product. 6. Where can I locate info about corruption in a given country? For honesty/corruption data, try Transparency International's annual corruption perceptions index for 85 countries (http://www.transparency.de). 7. Who maintains info about business and economic freedom? The Heritage Foundation's (http://www.heritage.org) annual publications "The Index of Economic Freedom" (print) covers 150+ countries. The ten factors include black markets, trade policy, regulation and property rights. 8. Where can I locate information about personal freedoms by country? Freedom House (http://www.freedomhouse.org) has 1972-current info by country for civil liberties and prolitical rights. 9. Does anyone maintain info about trade disputes? Yes, the WTO (http://www.wto.org) has downloadable files (.pdf/ms word)
by dispute.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES 1. What are some government sites with exchange rate data? The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board (http://www.bog.frb.fed.us) provides daily, monthly, and annual data for 40+ countries for 1971-present. (H-10). New York Fed (http://www.ny.frb.org) has daily data for a few years for 35+ countries. The IMF's site (http://www.imf.org) has daily values for 50+ countries (free). The "International Financial Statistics" contains both monthly and annual FXRs for virtually all members in both print and CD-ROM form (fee). The official WHO/UN Exchange Rates site (http://www.who.int/bfi/p-bfi/exchrate) provides both current and historical data for most countries. 2. What are some private sites with exchange rate data? The Pacific Exchange Rate Service in Vancouver has daily rates for 65 countries and supplemental data files for 220 countries. Rates are relative to the Canadian and U.S. dollars as well as the ECU. (http://pacific.commerce.ubc.ca/xr) Also, currency names, symbols, ISO-4217 codes, and regime types are given. FXR values for 164 currencies are available at (http://www.oanda.com). Wall Street Journal: daily in print for 40+ countries; Monday for almost all countries. Available for 1996-present in several media forms. (http://www.dowjones.com) (fee). 3. Who has rates for the euro? The European Central Bank (http://www.ecb.int) has daily Euro values. TRANSPORTATION - TRADE 1. Who has trade data by mode of transport? The Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (http://www.bts.gov) has transborder surface freight data for both imports and exports by commodity and mode of transport. Also, they have international passenger and freight data. Some state data are present. 2. Does anyone provide trade data by seaport? Yes, MARAD's (http://www.marad.dot.gov/statistics) has such data by port, year, weight/volume, vessel type, U.S. versus foreign vessel for both imports and exports. 3. Can I locate some seaport specific info? The American Association of Port Authorities (http://www.aapa-ports.org) has links to North American ports, port rankings, and port container tariff. 4. Where can I find airport rankings? Rankings by passengers, plane movements, and cargo are given for 800+ airports at (http://www.airports.org). LINKS AND PORTALS 1. What is the single best site for all types of international trade/business links? EDIRC (Economic Departments, Institutes, and Research Centres in the World), maintained by Zimmerman, has links to 5,500+ economic sites in 195+ countries (http://ideas.uqam.ca/EDIRC). 2. Is there a site with links to central banks, national statistical agencies, and national ministries of commerce/trade? Yes, Zimmerman's site above has with links to 130+ mininistries of trade/commerce, 160+ central banks, and 200+ statistical offices. The Statistical Data Locators site (http://www.ntu.edu.sg/libarary/statdata.htm) has links to many national data sources. 3. What are the most comprehensive portals for U.S. government entities? Firstgov.com provides links to most federal government sites. FEDSTATS (http://www.fedstats.gov) offers links to data provided by 70+ federal agencies and has an A-to-Z search feature (free). 4. What is the Commerce Department's portal? Commerce's site (http://www.exports.gov) is designed as a one-stop shopping site for those interested in exporting. Links to data, export readiness test, trade leads, and trade events are present. 5. What sites provide leading exporters/importers for specific commodities? The U.S. government does NOT indentify companies in this manner. Two sites (fee) with this info are the Journal of Commerce's PIERS product (http://www.piers.com) and the Canadian government site (http://strategis.ic.gc.ca). 6. Where can I obtain help with my exporting efforts? The Department of Commerce's Trade Information Center provides export counseling help (http://www.ita.doc.gov). STAT-USA (http://stat-usa.gov) contains export contacts by state, Commerce Business Daily info, Trade Opportunity leads, and U.N. procurement info. Commerce's U.S.F.C.S. (http://www.ita.doc.gov/uscs) offers a directory of export assistance centers by state, foreign tariff rates, and customs info. TARIFFS/PRODUCT CODES 1. Are there websites for U.S. tariff schedules? The U.S. ITC is responsible for publishing the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) while the U.S. Customs Service administers tariff and import entries. ITC's site (http://dataweb.usitc.gov/scripts/tariff2000.asp) has a tariff schedule by keyword search. Customs (http://www.customs.ustreas.gov) has a searchable file for tariff info. The ITC (http://www.customs.gov) maintains imports codes (HTS) while Census (http: //www.census.gov/foreign-trade/schedules/b/#search) maintains exports codes (Schedule B). 2. Is there a website for other nations' tariff rates? Yes, for tariffs for 101 countries by HS commodity codes, see (http://www.worldtarifff.com) (fee). The U.S. FASonline has WTO tariffs by country for agricultural products. 3. What sites have links to the largest variety of product concordances? Haveman's Empirical Investigations in International Trade (http://www.eiit.org/Trade. Resources/TradeCordances.html) has country codes (Census Bureau, World Bank, Penn World Tables), classification lists, and crosswalk product classification tables (HS, NAICS, SIC, ISIC, End use). For SIC, NAICS, SITC, and End-use concordances, see (http://www.tradeinfo.net) for a cd-rom (fee). 4. Who maintains HTS product codes and/or descriptions? For downloadable files (pdf/wordperfect) by HTS chapter, see (http://www.usitc.gov/taffairs.htm). The U.S. Government Printing Office sells HTS files in both print and cd-rom form. 5. How can I locate NAICS code information? For SIC-to-NAICS and NAICS-to-SIC information, see (http://www.census.gov/epcd/naics). For has text searches for SIC/NAICS product codes, see (http://www.naics.com). 6. Where can I find online SIC or SITC code information? OSHA has the 1987 SIC manual online (http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/sicser.html). For SIC/SITC product descriptions, see (http://dataweb.usitc.gov.scripts/sicsitc.asp). 7. Who maintains International SIC (ISIC) definitions? The International Labor Organization (http://www.ilo.org) does. TRADE DATA CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS 1. What are some of the major product classification systems? Note: each system has various levels of detail (digits). Only the HS, SITC, and CPC are commmodity based. HS = harmonized system. This is an international system used to classify traded products for both tariff and statistical purposes. Individual product categories are represented by six-digit codes. Any country may append additional digits. The U.S. uses 10-digit HS codes for collecting merchandise trade data. SITC = standard international trade classication Revision 3 is the current release maintained by the U.N. This five-digit classification is used to report aggregated national trade statistics to facilitate international comparabiliy. NAICS is a five-digit economic industry classification jointly created by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. National implementation allows each country to for subdivide the NAICS industries into national industries by appending a sixth digit to the NAICS industry. The industries identified by six digit industry codes may differ among the countries, but they are disaggregates of the five digit root industry. Many of the individual US six digit industries correspond to the four digit industries defined under the SIC; most higher level groupings do not. SIC = standard industrial classification was the former four-digit economic classification system used to describe industries of the U.S. economy. It was replaced by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) in 1997. One usually uses this system when one wishes to compare trade with employment or shipments. ISIC = international standard industrial classication and is a four-digit economic activity classification published by the U.N. One typically uses ISIC data to compare production and trade data for multiple countries. 2. What is a trade concordance or crosswalk? A concordance is a set of definitions used to cross-classify products. An example would be a product assigned to a HS code of "abcd" which corresponds, in the HS-SIC concordance, to the SIC code "wxyz" . 3. Where can I locate miscellaneous trade data items such as product codes, country codes, and classification concordances? The codes should always be the same through the first six digits. Beyond six digits, some import and exports codes differ. Census cd-roms have this data in database format and are available at depository libraries and for purchase. Publications with tariff schedules and country codes are available. 4. Why has the SIC product classification system been discontinued? Following the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by the United States, Canada and Mexico, the three governments decided to improve further the climate for trade and other commercial transactions by developing a uniform product classification system named the North American Industy Classification System (NAICS). In January 1999 the transition from the SIC to the NAICS, the current US industry classification, began. This disrupted the continuity of the trade series based on the SIC. Due to the distortions the transition introduced, it was decided that this series should not be extended. Further information on the content of NAICS industries and the conversion between the NAICS and SIC industry classifications can be found at (http://www.census.gov/naics) Transitional Impacts In January 1999 Census adjusted the trade concordance used to allocate HS data into SIC based trade categories to correct misallocations and in anticipation of transforming the trade data into a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) based format. The revised concordance only applied to active HS codes. SIC based allocations of inactive HS codes were not revised. The concordance change resulted in a substantial revision in the trade attributed to some SIC based trade categories. Inactive HS codes account for a substantial portion of trade in some SIC based trade categories. It was not feasible to adjust the SIC allocation of the inactive codes. Ignoring the revisions with respect to the inactive codes would have resulted in significant distortions in the SIC based trade series. Therefore, the publication of SIC based trade statistics was suspended. While many of the sector headings; such as manufacturing, wholesale trade, and retail trade; under the NAICS and the SIC are the same, the industries included in the sectors are different. Approximately half of the industries in the manufacturing sector under are not comparable to those industries identified under the SIC. Logging and much of publishing are excluded from the manufacturing sector under NAICS while they were included under the SIC. Bakeries, candy stores where the candy is made on the premises, custom tailors, makers of custom drapes, tire retreaders, and dental laboratories are included in manufacturing under NAICS while they were included in other sectors under the SIC. Further information on the content of NAICS industries and the conversion between the NAICS and SIC industry classifications can be found at (http://www.census.gov/naics) This web site has conversion tables which show the relationships between four digit SIC industries and six digit NAICS industries and six digit NAICS industries to four digit SIC industries. The US adopted NAICS as its economic classification system in 1997. Implementation by all US government agencies will be gradual. Statistics tabulated and released according to NAICS definitions began in 1999 with the release of the 1997 Economic Census data. It is expected that most statistical series will be converted to NAICS definitions by 2004. Trade data for active HS codes will be allocated to NAICS based categories
with the release of the January 2000 statistics. Allocations of inactive
HS codes will not be available at that time, so historical NAICS based
trade data will not be available for some period thereafter.
OTHER 1. Can you help me with printing the FTH tables on one piece of paper? The easiest step to try is to print in "landscape" mode rather than "portrait" mode. If this does not solve your problem, try changing the printing font in your Internet browser to a smaller size. Some browsers, such as Netscape 3.0, allow one to select a smaller size font than the choices shown in the menu box. For Netscape 3.0: select "options-preferences-choose fixed font-font size". Sizes 5-7 will print several more columns than a size 8 font. For Netscape 4.75: select "edit-preferences-appearance-font-size." 2. Why do world trade values differ across various "Foreign Trade Highlights" tables? Trade values may be defined on a "balance of payments" basis (Table 1), a "Census" basis (most FTH tables), or a "national income and products (GDP)" basis (Table 5). Also, Tables 1-13 are "final" data while all other tables are "unrevised" data. ------------------------------------------------------------- Most sites were verified in September-October 2000. For comments, corrections, and suggestions, please contact David Barton at 202-482-1607 or David_Barton@ita.doc.gov. Last updated 11/06/2000. Next update is unknown. |