As you learned earlier, WITS provides access to major trade and trade barrier’s databases. Some databases are freely accessible while others have restricted access.
UN COMTRADE: Has restricted access and this database contains:
Annual trade-flow information covering gross imports, gross exports, re-imports and re-exports since 1962.
Trade value and quantity by product category in SITC since 1962 and in HS since 1988.
UNCTAD TRAINS: Freely accessible database. It contains annual tariff structures (MFN Applied and Preferential tariffs, Ad Valorem or not) and non-tariff barrier information since 1988 at the National tariff line (NTL) level. The National tariff structure is country specific and may contain up to 15,000 distinct
lines.
UNCTAD TRAINS also contains import statistics by origin and Bound Tariff data at HS 6-digit level. Some imports statistics are separately available at the National tariff line level.
WTO IDB/CTS: WTO IDB/CTS database has restricted access. This database contains annual imports (values) and tariff structures (current and final Bound, MFN Applied, and Preferential tariffs, Ad Valorem or not) since 1996 at the National tariff line level for WTO member countries only. The National tariff structure is country specific and may
contain up to 15,000 distinct lines.
GPTAD:
GPTAD is a freely accessible database. It is used to:
Search PTAs by provisions or keywords
Compare provisions across multiple agreements.
Note: This is not updated and an archived database
TradeStats: Is freely available and contains pre-aggregated trade and tariff data to quickly obtain commonly used trade data.