Introduction

Trade Map is a service offered by the International Trade Centre. ATrade Map provides trade statistics for international business development and covers some 5 300 products for over 220 countries and territories. Data is available from 2000 onwards and earlier in some cases.

About Trade Map

Understanding the structure and evolution of international markets is essential for exporters, potential exporters and trade support institutions (TSIs). As exporting firms scan the world market for opportunities to diversify their products and markets, as well as suppliers, they are confronted:

• What is the structure of the world market for a product?
• With which countries does my country currently trade?
• Where are opportunities for market diversification?
• What tariff barriers exist in a specific market?
• Which countries are competing in a specific market and globally?

At the same time, trade support institutions need to set priorities in terms of trade promotion, sectoral performance, partner countries and trade development strategies to utilize resources effectively. Strategic market research with detailed statistical information on international trade flows helps them gauge the competitiveness of national and sectoral trade performance and identify priority products and markets for trade development by addressing the following types of questions:

• What are priority markets and products for trade promotion?
• What countries supply the majority of my country’s imports?
• What alternative sources of supply are available?
• In what areas does my country have a competitive advantage?
• What is my country’s current trade performance?
• For what products is there potential to increase bilateral trade?
• What are the trade flows between my country and a specific group of countries?

Then there was Trade Map

Trade Map was developed by the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC) to address these and related questions with the objectives of facilitating strategic market research, monitoring both national and product-specific trade performance, revealing comparative and competitive advantage, identifying the potential for market or product diversification and designing and prioritizing trade development programmes for both firms and trade support institutions.

By transforming the large volume of primary trade data into an accessible, user-friendly, and interactive web-based format, Trade Map provides users with indicators on country or product performance, demand, alternative markets and the role of competitors. It presents information in both tables, charts and maps, and allows queries based on product, group of products, country and regional country groupings for exports or imports.

How do I access Trade Map?

Trade Map is available in South Africa at the Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) website. You will need to register, but the service is free. The site is not very difficult to use, but you will need to explore the Trade Map site and practice in order to become proficient in using Trade Map. Fortunately, they provide a very useful user guide. Click here to access the Trade Map user guide.

• Click here to see a list of the developing countries that provide data for this service and for which years.
• Click here to see a list of the developed countries that provide data for this service and for which years.

Who can help me?

Do you need the information from Trade Map but don’t have the time or inclination to do it yourself? No problem, we at ExportHelp will compile a report for you for five countries of your choice based on the Trade Map data for as little as R995 excluding VAT. We simply need to know what the HS codes are for the products that you plan to export and the countries you are interested in and we will then compile the report for you.

Product Map

The Product Market Analysis Portal, or Product Map, consists of 72 web-based portals, each focusing on a particular industry and presenting extensive international trade data and market analysis tools specifically designed for organisations active in international trade. Find out more about Product Map.

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