About WorldTradeFlows

Our Mission

WorldTradeFlows makes global trade data accessible, understandable, and actionable. We believe that transparent access to international trade information empowers researchers, businesses, policymakers, and students to make better-informed decisions about our interconnected global economy.

Project Origins

WorldTradeFlows began as a personal project to make CEPII BACI trade data more accessible through modern web interfaces. The project started in late 2024 with the goal of creating clean, fast visualizations of bilateral trade relationships.

Rather than building another complex analytics platform, we focused on simplicity: clear country profiles, intuitive bilateral trade comparisons, and honest data limitations explained in plain language.

Team

WorldTradeFlows is currently maintained by a single developer. There is no formal organization, research team, or institutional backing at this time.

All development, data processing, and content creation is done independently. We welcome contributions and feedback from the international trade community.

Funding Reality

WorldTradeFlows operates with zero external funding.

• No grants: We have not received government or academic grants
• No sponsors: No corporate sponsorship or advertising revenue
• No subscriptions: All data and features are completely free
• Personal project: Server costs and development time are self-funded

This independence means we can prioritize data accuracy and user experience over revenue generation, but it also limits our ability to expand features rapidly.

Technical Infrastructure

Data Processing

We download the complete CEPII BACI dataset (approximately 2GB compressed) and process it into optimized JSON files for fast web delivery. Processing involves:

• Converting CSV exports to JSON format
• Aggregating product-level data to country-level summaries
• Generating bilateral trade relationship files
• Creating country rankings and regional groupings
• Calculating trade balances and growth rates

Web Platform

Our technical stack is deliberately simple:

• Frontend: Next.js 13+ with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS
• Hosting: Vercel for static site generation and global CDN
• Data storage: Static JSON files served directly
• No database: All data is pre-processed and served as static files
• No user accounts: No personal data collection or storage

This approach prioritizes speed, reliability, and cost-effectiveness over dynamic features.

Data Sources & Methodology

All trade data comes from the CEPII BACI database (Base pour l'Analyse du Commerce International), maintained by the Centre d'Études Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales in Paris, France.

BACI is built from UN Comtrade data but applies sophisticated reconciliation algorithms to resolve discrepancies between countries' import and export reports. This makes it more reliable than raw Comtrade data for bilateral trade analysis.

Data Limitations

We are transparent about what our data cannot tell you:

• Services trade: Only goods trade is included
• Informal trade: Unrecorded cross-border trade is not captured
• Re-exports: Data includes re-exports, inflating some countries' volumes
• Confidential items: Some sensitive products are suppressed
• Timing lags: Latest data is typically 12-18 months old

Update Schedule

BACI releases new data annually, typically in January. We update WorldTradeFlows within 4-6 weeks of each release after processing and quality checks.

Future Development

Our development priorities depend on user feedback and available time. Potential features include:

• Product-level analysis: Detailed HS6-digit product trade flows
• Regional aggregations: Trade bloc and regional grouping analysis
• Time series tools: Interactive charts for trade evolution
• API access: Programmatic data access for developers
• Additional visualizations: Network graphs and flow maps

However, all development is constrained by being a single-person project with no funding.

Academic Use

WorldTradeFlows data is suitable for academic research, with proper attribution. If you use our platform in research or publications, please cite:

1. This website: WorldTradeFlows.com for data access and processing
2. Original source: CEPII BACI database for the underlying data

Contact & Feedback

We welcome feedback, bug reports, and suggestions for improvement:

• General inquiries: info@worldtradeflows.com
• Technical issues: Submit issues on our GitHub repository
• Data questions: Contact CEPII directly at baci@cepii.fr

Response times may vary as this is maintained by a single person alongside other commitments.

Our Philosophy

We believe good data tools should be:

• Honest: Clear about limitations and uncertainties
• Fast: Quick to load and easy to navigate
• Accessible: Free and open to everyone
• Focused: Better to do fewer things well than many things poorly
• Transparent: Open about methods, sources, and constraints

This philosophy guides every decision we make about features, design, and data presentation.