UN Comtrade International Trade Data Tracker

Fetch bilateral international trade data (exports and imports) from the UN Comtrade Preview API — completely free, no API key required. Query by reporter country, partner country, HS commodity code, and year range.

What is UN Comtrade?

UN Comtrade is the world's largest repository of international merchandise trade statistics maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division. It contains annual, quarterly, and monthly trade flows reported by more than 200 countries and territories.

Use Cases

• Tariff & Trade Policy Analysis — Track the impact of tariffs on bilateral trade flows (e.g., US-CN trade war, EU carbon border tax)
• Supply Chain Intelligence — Identify which countries export critical components (semiconductors, batteries, rare earths)
• Geopolitical Research — Monitor trade diversification, reshoring trends, and friend-shoring patterns
• Commodity Market Research — Track global trade volumes for specific HS codes (oil, LNG, steel, agricultural goods)
• Academic & Financial Research — Build datasets for macroeconomic models, country risk, or investment theses

Supported Countries (ISO2)

Code	Country	Code	Country
US	United States	KR	South Korea
CN	China	IN	India
JP	Japan	GB	United Kingdom
DE	Germany	FR	France
IT	Italy	CA	Canada
AU	Australia	BR	Brazil
MX	Mexico	RU	Russia
SA	Saudi Arabia

Use "0" as the partner code to retrieve world totals (all partners combined).

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
reporters	string[]	["US", "CN"]	ISO2 codes of reporting countries
partners	string[]	["0"]	ISO2 codes of partner countries, or "0" for world total
commodityCodes	string[]	["TOTAL"]	HS commodity codes (e.g. "8471" for computers) or "TOTAL"
flowCode	string	"X,M"	Trade flow: X = exports, M = imports, X,M = both
periods	integer[]	[2023]	List of years to query
maxRecordsPerQuery	integer	250	Max records per API call (max 250 for free tier)

Common HS Commodity Codes

Code	Description
TOTAL	All commodities
8471	Computers
8517	Phones & communication equipment
8542	Integrated circuits / semiconductors
2709	Crude oil
2711	Natural gas (LNG)
7208	Steel flat-rolled products
2601	Iron ore
8703	Passenger vehicles

Output Fields

Each record contains:

Field	Description
reporter_code	UN Comtrade numeric code of reporting country
reporter_name	Name of reporting country
reporter_iso	ISO3 code of reporting country
partner_code	UN Comtrade numeric code of partner country
partner_name	Name of partner country
partner_iso	ISO3 code of partner country
flow	Trade flow description (Export / Import)
commodity_code	HS commodity code
commodity_description	HS commodity description
period	Year of the data
trade_value_usd	Trade value in USD
netweight_kg	Net weight in kilograms
qty	Quantity (units vary by commodity)
source	Always "UN Comtrade"

Example Output

{
  "reporter_code": 840,
  "reporter_name": "United States of America",
  "reporter_iso": "USA",
  "partner_code": 156,
  "partner_name": "China",
  "partner_iso": "CHN",
  "flow": "Import",
  "commodity_code": "8542",
  "commodity_description": "Electronic integrated circuits",
  "period": 2023,
  "trade_value_usd": 48234567890,
  "netweight_kg": 12345678,
  "qty": null,
  "source": "UN Comtrade"
}

Pricing

This Actor uses Pay-Per-Event (PPE) pricing:

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.005
Per trade record fetched	$0.005

A typical run querying 2 countries × 1 partner × 1 commodity × 1 year returns up to 4 records, costing ~$0.025.

API Limits

This Actor uses the UN Comtrade Preview API (free tier):

• Maximum 250 records per query
• Rate limited: ~1 request per second
• Annual data only (monthly/quarterly require a subscription)
• 15 supported reporter countries

For higher volume or more countries, the UN Comtrade API subscription ($500/year) unlocks full access.

Data Attribution

Data sourced from UN Comtrade — United Nations Statistics Division. Please cite appropriately in academic or commercial publications.

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Related actors

• World Bank Data Scraper — GDP, exports % of GDP, and trade balance to complement bilateral UN Comtrade flows
• OECD Stats Tracker — OECD trade statistics for G7/G20 bilateral comparison alongside UN Comtrade
• Eurostat Economic Data — EU trade data for cross-border flows within the Eurozone to complement UN data

Feedback

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Keywords: UN Comtrade, trade data, import export, international trade, trade balance, commodities, tariff, HS code, global trade, trade statistics, bilateral trade, country exports