Working with Quick Query - Overview

The objective of this module is to learn how to retrieve and analyze trade data from the three following databases within WITS:

• The United Nations COMTRADE;
• The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)'s TRAINS;
• the World Trade Organization (WTO) IDB;

• The Quick Database Query tools offer the easiest and quickest way for retrieving simple information from the available databases. WITS offers thre different tools:
• Quick Query - UN COMTRADE by Country/Period more... allows you to query UN COMTRADE database and to access trade values and quantities of all traded products for one reporter country, one year, and one or all partners using standard international nomenclatures.
• Quick Query - UN COMTRADE by Product more... allows you to query UN COMTRADE database and to access trade values and quantities for one product (or product category) at a time but for one or multiple years, reporters and partner countries using standard international nomenclatures.
• Quick Query -Trade -View and Export Tariff line Trade more... allows you to query TRAINS/WTO IDB database and to retrieve import values and quantities for one product at the national tariff line level for all partners.

The Advanced Query tool offers many more features, notably flexibility for Multi-country/period/product extractions of trade data as well as product or country aggregations.

You will learn some Background on Trade information and how to use two major types of tools available in WITS:

Since TRAINS and WTO IDB contains not only trade data but also market protection related information, their respective Quick Database Query tools allow retrieving both types of information. See Working with Protection Data for protection related aspects.

Next: Background on Trade information

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The World Bank, 2010