UNITED NATIONS COMMODITY TRADE DATABASE GOES PUBLIC

Over 700 Million Trade Records,

Covering 40 Years, Now Accessible Online

NEW YORK, 30 May (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs) -- The United Nations is opening UN Comtrade, its commodity trade statistics database holding over 700 million records, to the public on 1 June.  This unique database, the largest of its kind in the world, contains over 40 years of detailed trade information that until now has been accessible only to economists and statisticians of international organizations.  The United Nations is now making this wide-ranging source of trade information accessible to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection, at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/comtrade.

Using UN Comtrade, anyone can find information on any commodity from any country, be it banana exports of Ecuador to the main importers of black printing ink, from trade in dried egg yolks or felt hats to railway passenger coaches or spacecraft launch vehicles.  It is easy to find the number of pullovers made from animal hair that Mongolia exported to Luxembourg in 2000 (335), or the number of motor vehicles exported by Japan to the United States in 2001 (1.8 million, for a total of almost $31 billion).  Also available are larger overviews of imports and exports by country and main categories of commodities, such as food or fuels or machinery.

In addition to the statistical values and quantities of trade, the database includes a rich source of reference information on countries, customs areas and commodities, as well as background information on terms used.  The site also provides a number of links to additional sources of trade indicators, and there are plans to extend these in the near future to include macroeconomic indicators.

UN Comtrade not only lets users select the data they are looking for, but they can then view it in a number of different graphic formats.  The site also allows small sets of data to be extracted from the database free of charge.  Larger data sets -- such as for use in corporate market or product analysis, or academic research work -- can be obtained through an annual subscription.  Government offices and universities pay a reduced rate and an additional 50 per cent discount is being provided to a large number of countries, selected on the basis of gross domestic product.

For more information on UN Comtrade, please contact Ronald Jansen, Chief Commodity Trade Statistics Section, ITSB/SD/DESA; tel.: (+1) 212 963 5980; fax: (+1) 212 963 1940; e-mail: jansen1@un.org.  Media contact: Edoardo Bellando, United Nations Department of Public Information, tel.: (+1) 212 963 8275, e-mail: bellando@un.org.

      COMTRADE is available from United Nations Publications, Two UN Plaza, Room DC2-853, Dept. PRES, New York NY 10017 USA; tel.:  800-253-9646 or 212-963-8302; fax: 212-963-3489; e-mail:  subscriptions@un.org; or Section des Ventes et Commercialisation, Bureau E-4, CH-1211, Geneva 10, Switzerland; tel.:  41-22-917-2614; fax.:  41-22-917-0027; e-mail:  unpubli@unog.ch; Web site:  http://www.un.org/publications

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