International Trade and Socioeconomic Statistics

Consider the World Integrated Trade Solution as the starting point for access to major international trade, tariffs and non-tariff data compilations (registration required):

• The UN COMTRADE (Commodity Trade Statistics) database maintained by the United Nations Statistical Division, export and import data going back to 1962, for commodities by Harmonized System (HS) or Standard International Trade Classification (SITC);
• The TRAINS (TRade Analysis and INformation System) was maintained by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD);
• The IDB (Integrated Data Base) and CTS (Consolidated Tariff Schedule) databases maintained by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Service industry sectors are covered by the UN Service Trade database.

International Trade and Tariff Data includes the International Trade Statistics annual report from the World Trade Organization, with statistical data in PDF and Microsoft Excel formats. This site also provides access to selected historical time-series data. Also available from the WTO are Trade Policy Reviews for most of the member countries.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) eLibrary provides direct access to the IMF’s major data and statistical tools such as International Financial Statistics (IFS), Balance of Payment Statistics (BOP), Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS), and Government Finance Statistics (GFS). (Rutgers-restricted access)

The International Trade Statistics Yearbook (ALEXANDER International Documents REF HF 91 .U473; DANA, CARR REF HF 91 .U473) from the United Nations provides statistics on commodities and merchandise trade, organized by the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC). Five years of these import and export statistics are also available online at the International Trade Centre of UNCTAD/WTO.

The International Trade Centre of UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and the WTO also provides quick tables and graphs by countries and commodities organized by Harmonized System (HS). Another useful compilation from the UN is the International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics (ALEXANDER Documents REF HC 10 .I68). It gives data by country showing global and regional trends, and data by commodity (three-digit ISIC) for developed countries.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization offers Statistical Country Briefs with data such as the growth and structure of MVA (manufacturing value added) or the GDP generated by the manufacturing sector, as well as the composition and value of trade by SITC.

You can also refer to the UNCTAD Commodity Yearbook (ALEXANDER International Documents REF HF 1040 .Y42; DANA REF HF 1040 .Y42), which has exports, imports, and, in some cases, consumption figures for commodities by SITC.

Every two years, the Food and Agriculture Organization publishes the Commodity Market Review for agricultural products. A new biennial publication is the State of Agricultural Commodity Markets.

For fisheries data, consult the FAO Yearbook of Fishery Statistics, which comes in two segments: "Capture Production" and "Commodities." (DANA REF HD 9000.4 .F8 and DANA REF HD 9000.4 .F58) The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture reviews trends in production, utilization and trade.

There is also an extensive searchable database called FAOSTAT covering agriculture, fisheries, and forestry production and trade.

Foreign direct investment is also tracked by UNCTAD; a database of FDI Statistics from the last 30 years is available, but you have to register in order to access it. Otherwise, annual data from 1997-2002 are available as individual PDF files. FDI Country Profiles for 112 economies are also available, along with Country Fact Sheets for 187 economies.

A related annual publication from UNCTAD is the World Investment Report (1991-2015) "covers the latest trends in foreign direct investment around the World and analyses in depth one selected topic related to foreign direct investment and development."

Several large industrial sectors are covered as Data: Topics by the World Bank.

Statistics for trade between the European Union and the rest of the world are available under EU Bilateral Trade Relations.

World Tariff Profiles is jointly prepared by the WTO, ITC and UNCTAD. Trade Profiles and Services Profiles are also available by country from the WTO's Statistics database.

Ships and Shipping Facts and Figures is a useful compilation from the International Maritime Organization.

The International Transport Forum collects air and sea cargo as well as road and rail freight data from 52 member nations and publishes a briefing called Quarterly Transport Statistics.

The International Air Transport Association provides a Monthly Traffic Analysis of air passenger and cargo utilization, as well as a monthly Airlines Financial Monitor report.

Finally, a variety of trade-related Free Reports are available by request from Datamyne, including a recent one on 2015 import-export trade for NAFTA countries.