Trade glossary · institutions
UN Comtrade
Also known as: UN Comtrade, Comtrade Plus
United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database — the world's largest repository of customs declarations. Member states submit annual figures; CEPII BACI is built from these submissions.
UN Comtrade hosts ~3 billion data records spanning 200+ reporters from 1962 onward. Coverage and quality vary widely: OECD members typically report comprehensive HS6 detail, while smaller or conflict-affected economies may report only aggregate values or skip years. BACI's reconciliation is the standard way to handle this raw data.
Authoritative source: UN Comtrade ↗
Related terms
BACI
CEPII's reconciled bilateral trade dataset, the primary source behind World Trade Flows. Covers ~226 countries from 1995 to the most recent year, at HS6 detail.
CEPII
Centre d'Études Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales, a French research institute on international economics. Publishes BACI and other trade datasets.
WCO
World Customs Organization — maintains the Harmonized System (HS) and standardizes customs procedures across 184 member countries.