Introduction to Trade Map

Trade Map is produced by the International Trade Centre (ITC), a multilateral agency focused on improving the international competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries. Its headquarters are in Geneva.

The trade statistics come from a series of trade databases that cover the export or import (or both) of goods or services. The goods trade data report quantity and value of traded products and the partner countries. The reported dimensions on services trade data are less, typically just the services are either exported or imported and the partner countries.

Commercial presence data reports a country’s ownership of foreign direct investment in other countries. Business connections data reports the number of domestic companies doing business with foreign countries and the expansion of these business connections.

This paper is an in-depth analysis of Trade Map, a trade statistics database that covers trade flows, commercial presence, and business connections.

This data set would be especially useful for scholars of international business, international economics, or international economic geography. International business scholars are likely to be drawn to its detail on specific products, cross-border movement of goods and services, and commercial presence.

International economics and economic geographers would find many tests for theories in their fields, as Trade Map provides a level of detail that is fine enough to be useful for identifying the source countries of regions’ trade. Additionally, Trade Map is one of the few detailed trade data sources that repeatedly covers a long panel of both countries and traded products.

Purpose and Significance

It is against this backdrop that we offer the present analysis. Most of what follows is derived from a CD-ROM product called Trade Map, produced by CCI, Inc. and Wadronetics, of New York and Geneva. Trade Map is built upon the United Nations COMTRADE database, which is operated by UNSTAT.

UNU uses data supplied by the respective countries, through their national statistical offices, as collected, compiled, and published through their regular procedures for trade statistics. These regular procedures are based on import/export declarations that are made to customs, that are then processed by trade.

The COMTRADE database is coordinated by UNSTAT. This database gives access to more than 210 reporters and 180 partners (countries), with each product being classified under both the SITC Revision 3 and Harmonized System classification systems. Publishable codes, called printable codes, are provided by COMTRADE for the reporters and partners. They also provide coverage of totals for the respective classification systems. Through CD-ROM, Trade Map provides information and organizational tools that form trade statistics into a teachable text.

The importance of international trade is obvious to most people. For many countries in the world, considerable proportions of income are derived from trade.

In the United States, which has the most diversified industrial economy, approximately one quarter of its income derives from trade. For a great number of lesser developed countries, this figure is even higher. However, not to a lesser degree for any country, the distributional consequences of trade (i.e. who gets what) are so significant that they remain major issues. Central to the controversies surrounding trade is the question of who gets what.

With these figures as the backdrop, three out of every ten persons on Earth have been moving in a very restricted circle…that of potential buyers and sellers throughout the countries of the world. With today’s communication and transportation revolution, this figure is increasing as time goes on.