🚢 UK Trade Data API — HMRC Imports & Exports by Commodity

Get HMRC's Overseas Trade Statistics as clean JSON — UK imports and exports of goods by 8-digit commodity code (with HS chapter, heading and subheading names), partner country, UK port and month, with trade value in pounds, net mass in kilograms and supplementary units — straight from HMRC's UK Trade Info API.

Give one or more commodity codes (HS2, HS4, HS6 or CN8), then filter by partner country, flow (EU / non-EU imports and exports) and months. With no months, the latest 12 published months are read. Newest month and largest value first.

The unit of output is one trade row: one month, flow, commodity, partner country and port. You pay per row delivered; a run that finds nothing costs nothing.

Who buys this and for what job

• Exporters, importers and trade-finance teams sizing UK trade in a product by country and port.
• Market-research and sales teams spotting which countries buy or supply a commodity.
• Logistics and port analysts tracking volumes through UK ports.
• Economists and policy analysts following UK goods trade month by month.

Buyers usually search for this as "uk trade data" or "hmrc import export data".

📊 Sample Output

month	flow	commodity_cn8	port_name	value_gbp	net_mass_kg
2026-07	EU Imports	22030001	Eurotunnel(Folkstone	591205	1153004
2026-07	EU Exports	22030009	Dover/Eurotunnel	570698	436416
2026-07	EU Exports	22030009	Immingham	421153	288090
2026-07	EU Exports	22030001	Dover/Eurotunnel	370772	214196
2026-07	EU Exports	22030010	Dover/Eurotunnel	346309	234538
2026-07	EU Imports	22030009	Hull	74514	73814

Rows from live run eg6cpvghUx0E0KeBr on Apify (the Store example: HS 2203 (beer) with France, latest 12 months, 10 rows). Notice the newest month first, largest value first, and the UK port on every row.

✅ What you get

Every field of each record:

• record_id — oTS:
• month — month (YYYY-MM).
• flow_type_id — 1-4.
• flow — eU Imports, EU Exports, Non-EU Imports or Non-EU Exports.
• commodity_cn8 — 8-digit Combined Nomenclature code.
• commodity_description — CN8 description.
• hs2_code — HS chapter.
• hs2_description — HS chapter description.
• hs4_code — HS heading.
• hs4_description — HS heading description.
• hs6_code — HS subheading.
• hs6_description — HS subheading description.
• country_code — partner country (two-letter code).
• country_name — partner country name.
• port_code — UK port code.
• port_name — UK port name.
• value_gbp — trade value in pounds sterling.
• net_mass_kg — net mass in kilograms (null where not declared).
• supplementary_units — supplementary units for the commodity (e.g. litres, items), where declared.
• suppression_index — hMRC suppression index (0 = not suppressed).
• source — publisher statistics.
• source_url — aPI query used.
• licence — licence notice.
• attribution — source line.
• observed_at — when this run read it (UTC).

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. The Store example — beer trade with France

{
  "commodityCodes": ["2203"],
  "countries": ["FR"],
  "maxRecords": 10
}

Read 340 rows for August 2025 to July 2026 and returned the 10 largest of the newest month in run eg6cpvghUx0E0KeBr; $0.50 on the Free plan.

2. Car imports from Germany

{
  "commodityCodes": ["8703"],
  "countries": ["DE"],
  "flows": ["imports"],
  "maxRecords": 40
}

Read 1,123 rows and returned 40 in run g0bzEobySmBtKow7a.

3. Spirits exports to the US

{
  "commodityCodes": ["2208"],
  "flows": ["non_eu_exports"],
  "countries": ["US"],
  "maxRecords": 20
}

Read 735 rows and returned 20 in run xmK3PWC1ic5OmXuiq.

Input fields:

Field	Meaning
commodityCodes	Required. HS chapter (22), heading (2203), subheading (220300) or 8-digit CN code (22030001).
countries	Two-letter codes, e.g. FR, US, CN. Leave empty for all.
flows	imports, exports, eu_imports, eu_exports, non_eu_imports, non_eu_exports. Default: imports and exports.
monthFrom	e.g. 2025-01. Default: 12 months back from the latest published month.
monthTo	e.g. 2026-07. Default: the latest published month.
maxRecords	Stop after this many rows (each is charged once).

🧾 JSON sample record

{
  "record_id": "OTS:202607:1:22030001:1:382:0",
  "month": "2026-07",
  "flow_type_id": 1,
  "flow": "EU Imports",
  "commodity_cn8": "22030001",
  "commodity_description": "Beer made from malt, in bottles holding <= 10 l",
  "hs2_code": "22",
  "hs2_description": "Beverages, spirits and vinegar",
  "hs4_code": "2203",
  "hs4_description": "Beer made from malt",
  "hs6_code": "220300",
  "hs6_description": "Beer made from malt",
  "country_code": "FR",
  "country_name": "France",
  "port_code": "EUT",
  "port_name": "Eurotunnel(Folkstone",
  "value_gbp": 591205,
  "net_mass_kg": 1153004,
  "supplementary_units": 1153004,
  "suppression_index": 0,
  "source": "HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics (OTS), UK Trade Info API",
  "source_url": "https://api.uktradeinfo.com/OTS?$filter=(Commodity/Hs4Code%20eq%20'2203')%20and%20MonthId%20ge%20202508%20and%20MonthId%20le%20202607%20and%20(Country/CountryCodeAlpha%20eq%20'FR')&$expand=Country($select=CountryName,CountryCodeAlpha),Commodity($select=Cn8Code,Cn8LongDescription,Hs2Code,Hs4Code,Hs6Code,Hs2Description,Hs4Description,Hs6Description),Port($select=PortName,PortCodeAlpha)",
  "licence": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: HM Revenue & Customs, UK Trade Info, Overseas Trade Statistics. © Crown copyright.",
  "attribution": "Source: HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Overseas Trade Statistics (uktradeinfo.com)",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-12T04:09:01Z"
}

🔧 How it works

1. Robots check. api.uktradeinfo.com/robots.txt is requested on every run. It returns HTTP 404, so no robots policy is published; that is recorded. A robots file that disallowed the API would stop the run with nothing charged.

2. Respect the rate limit. HMRC allows 60 requests a minute; the actor waits at least 1.2 seconds between requests.

3. Query OTS. The actor finds the latest published month, counts the rows that match your filter, then reads them in pages of 40,000 (HMRC's page size) with country, commodity and port names expanded. A filter matching more than 200,000 rows is refused before anything is charged; narrow it.

4. Sort, deliver, then charge. Rows are sorted newest month and largest value first and pushed in batches, each charged after delivery.

5. Receipt. RUN_RECEIPT records the robots result, the months read, rows matching and read, and delivered and charged counts.

No login, API key, proxy or bot workaround. HMRC's trader (company) endpoints are never called.

💰 Pricing example

Per trade row delivered, no start fee, no monthly charge:

Apify plan	Price per trade row
Free	$0.05
Bronze	$0.045
Silver	$0.04
Gold, Platinum, Diamond	$0.0335

• 10 records (the Store example): $0.50 on the Free plan, $0.335 on Gold.
• 1,000 records (the default cap): $50 on Free, $45 on Bronze, $40 on Silver, $33.50 on Gold.

Coverage and size. UK overseas trade in goods by CN8 commodity, partner country, UK port and month; the latest month published on 12 Oct 2026 was July 2026. Values are in pounds sterling and net mass in kilograms, as HMRC's OTS tables state; supplementary units depend on the commodity (e.g. litres, items). Flows are EU / non-EU imports and exports as HMRC classifies them. Some trade is suppressed by HMRC (suppression_index).

⚖️ Legal & ToS

Data: HM Revenue & Customs, Overseas Trade Statistics, from the UK Trade Info API (api.uktradeinfo.com). UK Trade Info states its content is Crown copyright published under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated. Every record carries the OGL attribution in licence and a source line in attribution. Not affiliated with or endorsed by HMRC.

Aggregate trade by commodity, country and port — no personal data, and the API's trader endpoints (company names and addresses) are never called. The API's robots file returns 404 (no policy), recorded on every run. One public API, declared User-Agent, HMRC's rate limit respected, no login, key, proxy or form.

❓ FAQ

Why must I give a commodity code? OTS is very large; a commodity code keeps queries fast and bills only what you asked for.

Are values in pounds? Yes. HMRC publishes OTS values in pounds sterling and net mass in kilograms.

What do EU and non-EU flows mean? They are HMRC's four flow types; use imports or exports for both.

How fresh is it? As fresh as HMRC's monthly release; the receipt shows the latest published month.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• "Invalid input: … trade rows match" — the filter is too broad; use a longer commodity code, fewer months or add countries.
• 0 records for a country — use two-letter codes, e.g. DE, US, CN.
• Rows with port 'Not Collected' or 'Estimates' — those are HMRC's own categories, delivered as published.
• SOURCE UNAVAILABLE message — the source did not answer after four tries; nothing was charged — run again later.
• CAPPED message — your maximum total charge was reached; raise it in the run options.
• Run failed with "Invalid input" — a filter value is malformed; the message names the field. Nothing was charged.

🔗 Related Actors

• UK Tariff Commodity Records — HS Codes & Taxonomy — UK tariff commodity codes.
• Sweden Trade by Partner & Month - SCB — Swedish trade by partner.
• Australia International Goods Trade - ABS — Australian goods trade.
• US Exports by Destination & Mode — CFS Export Freight — US exports by destination and mode.
• UK CPIH Inflation Time Series - ONS — UK inflation.

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