Last updated 15 March 2000

Data sources, software, and related institutional links

A great deal of information related to international trade, investment, and policy data can be found on the World Wide Web. In some cases, the data or software listed below can be ordered by email, while in other cases data are actually available for free download. These data include information on international trade and investment flows, protection data (such as MFN tariffs and non-tariff barriers) and national social accounting data. 

1.    Trade, production, and protection data:

A.    For global agricultural markets, a good place to start is the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They monitor these markets on a regular basis, and the data they produce are made available over the World Wide Web. There is also the Pink Sheet, a monthly summary of commodity prices, and historical price data from the World Bank.

B.    For social accounting data, a good starting point is the Global Trade Analysis Project. GTAP is a consortium of government and research organizations (like the Australian Industry Commission, the Commission of the European Communities, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Trade Organization, etc.) A basic objective of GTAP is to reduce the entry cost for general equilibrium analysis of global and regional international economic issues, especially those related to international trade and investment. GTAP maintains a database of global social accounting data for major countries and a number of other aggregate regions. The database is benchmarked to a particular year, and all national data are on a common nomencalture basis. The price of the database varies, depending on the status of the buyer (individual, academic, institution, etc). Individual aggregations are available for free from the GTAP web site.

C.    The United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) maintains a database of tariff and non-tariff measures. This database, the TRAINS database, contains tariff-line information on Trade Control Measures (tariff, para-tariff and non-tariff measures) classified according to the UNCTAD Coding System of Trade Control Measures. The dissemination of the database takes place through:

  • ORDER INFORMATION: TRAINS (TRade Analysis and INformation System) A PC-based information system containing data from the Database on Trade Control Measures supplemented with import data, product descriptions, as well as some general documentation. The third CD-ROM version covering 86 countries was made available in December 1996 and the next version is expected in May-June 1997.
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    UNCTAD also produces a "Handbook of International Trade and Development Statistics". This Handbook is intended to provide a complete basic collection of statistical data relevant to the analysis of world trade and development for the use of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, government officials, university and other research specialists, and others interested in these subjects. The Handbook is largely based on existing international and national data sources and provides a unique compilation of data.

  • ORDER INFORMATION: Sales No. E/F.95.II.D.15 ISBN No. 92-1-012036-1 511 pp., Price: $80.00
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    D.    The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) makes available data on Western Hemisphere trade, investment, and protection through the IDB's economic, trade and social databases. These are maintained by the Statistics and Quantitative Analysis Unit, some of them in searchable formats, many of them revised on a monthly basis.

    E.    The European Commission also maintains a site from which you can access the WTO tariff schedules (applied and most-favoured nation tariffs) for a limited number of countries, as well as qualitative data on non-tariff measures.

    1. Another source of tariff data is the World Bank's International Trade Division, which has published on the web tables of MFN tariffs and Uruguary Round tariff concessions made by different countries as part of the Uruguay Round Agreement. By following the link below, users can access 250 tables of data on tariff concessions given and received at the Uruguay Round.

     

    1. Yet another World Bank source is the average tariff tables produced as part of the World Development Report.
    1. The U.S. Commerce Department provides online, current trade data by country at the 10 digit SITC level.

    2.    Software, models, and miscellaneous

    A.    Spreadsheets

    B.    Computational modelling systems.  (Note that these often include online model libraries).

    C.    Miscellaneous links

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