UN Comtrade Trade Data Scraper

Scrape bilateral trade data between any two countries from the UN Comtrade database. Get import/export values broken down by HS (Harmonized System) product codes -- perfect for identifying top traded product categories and tracking trade trends over time.

What data is available?

UN Comtrade is the world's largest repository of international trade statistics, maintained by the United Nations. This actor fetches:

• Bilateral trade flows between any two countries (200+ countries supported)
• HS code level detail -- from 2-digit chapters (e.g., "85 - Electrical machinery") down to 6-digit subheadings
• Trade values in USD, including CIF (cost, insurance, freight) for imports and FOB (free on board) for exports
• Weight and quantity data where available
• Annual or monthly data frequency
• Multi-year data for trend analysis

Example use cases

• Find top imports from China to India in electronics: Set reporter=India, partner=China, hsCode=85, flow=imports
• Track India-China trade trends over 4 years: Set years=2020,2021,2022,2023
• Identify what India exports to the USA: Set reporter=India, partner=USA, flow=exports
• Find specific product trade values: Use 4 or 6-digit HS codes (e.g., 8517 for telecom equipment)

Input

Field	Description	Default
reporterCountry	The country reporting the trade	India
partnerCountry	The trade partner country	China
hsCode	HS code filter (2/4/6-digit). Empty = all chapters	(empty)
flow	Trade direction: "imports" or "exports"	imports
years	Year(s), comma-separated for trends	2023
frequency	"annual" or "monthly"	annual
maxResults	Max records to return	100

Output fields

Field	Description
hs_code	Harmonized System product code
hs_description	Human-readable product description
trade_value_usd	Total trade value in US dollars
cif_value_usd	CIF value (cost + insurance + freight, for imports)
fob_value_usd	FOB value (free on board, for exports)
net_weight_kg	Net weight in kilograms
quantity	Quantity in the reported unit
quantity_unit	Unit of measurement for quantity
year	Reference year
period	Period code (year for annual, YYYYMM for monthly)
reporter_country	Reporting country name
partner_country	Partner country name
flow	"import" or "export"
unit_price_usd	Calculated: trade_value / quantity (or weight)

Results are sorted by trade_value_usd descending, so the biggest trade categories come first.

Supported countries (top 20 trading nations)

India, China, USA, UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, Saudi Arabia

You can also pass numeric M49 country codes directly for countries not in this list.

Technical details

• Pure HTTP actor (no browser needed), runs on 256 MB memory
• Uses the UN Comtrade public preview API (no authentication required)
• Data typically lags 1-2 years behind current date
• No proxy needed -- UN Comtrade has no anti-bot protection