Business Owner's Manual

Finding export statistics and trade leads

Part of doing market research for foreign trade includes finding export statistics. You will eventually need to know how much of which products are exported and to which countries. Researching the export statistics for your product or commodity is an important step in establishing whether your fledgeling export idea is feasible and in drafting a business plan if you intend to seek funding from a bank or other source.

The Science, Industry, and Business Library (SIBL) offers access to three electronic databases of export/import statistical information produced by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Bureau of the Census. They are available by reserving a workstation in the Electronic Information Center at SIBL. These databases are:

• STAT-USA
• USA Trade
• U.S. Exports of Merchandise

Exports and export statistics are often categorized in these databases by Harmonized Tariff Schedule number, and these numbers are the most precise way of identifying your product. While it is possible to search for a product by key word, it is often more precise and efficient to use the Tariff Schedule number. You can find these in print in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (available in the library) and on the Internet from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Importing & Exporting site, or from the U.S. International Trade Commission.

 

Using STAT-USA

To obtain export/import statistics from STAT-USA, click on any of the links under the heading, "International Trade Statistics." You can search for export statistics by either commodity or country of destination. If you have chosen to search by commodity, you can scroll through the commodities which are listed by International Harmonized Schedule or you can search by keyword such as "furniture" or "spices" by clicking on the link at the top of the page labeled "Search." Both the dollar value and the unit of quantity is provided for the export commodity by world total and also by individual country for the past five calendar years and year-to-date for the current and previous years. This is the quickest, easiest way of obtaining an overall picture of the market for your particular commodity or product. You can either print out your search results or download them to your own disk. However, you cannot further customize the information. Customizable export statistics can be obtained from the following database.

 

Using USA Trade

This database provides detailed U.S. export and import statistics. It allows the user to create customized statistical reports by commodity, country of destination, U.S. port of departure, and time period, ranked by either increasing or decreasing dollar value or unit of quantity. It is a Web-based, subscription database which is not freely available on the Internet. It can, however, be accessed for free at the Science, Industry, and Business Library. To use this database, you must sign up for a networked computer at the library. After you have opened USA Trade at your reserved workstation, you will see the database's main entry page.

At the starting page of USA Trade, select time period in which you are interested by highlighting it with your cursor and clicking on "OK." At the next display, you must then search for your commodity by either scrolling through the International Harmonized Schedule or you can search by commodity keyword by using the drop down menu under the heading Dimension in the Menu Bar. This will give you the total world value of the export of that commodity from the United States.

You can further tailor your report to provide the export value of your commodity to a particular country or you can even generate a report of the top export market countries for your commodity ranked by either decreasing dollar value or unit of quantity. It is even possible to limit your report to the total value of your commodity shipped from a particular United States port.

You can then either print out your search results or download them to your own disk.

 

Using U.S. Exports of Merchandise

This export data is provided through the library by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce on a searchable CD-ROM, which can be accessed at the library. Even though search results from this database (unlike USA Trade) cannot be customized, this database is very useful because it allows you to compare export statistics for a particular commodity from foreign countries with those from the United States.

It is also unique among the three databases in that it provides statistics of what dollar value or unit of quantity amount of a commodity has been shipped by air and/or by vessel. You can search by commodity keyword or by International Harmonized Schedule code number for statistics for the current month, year-to-date, or past five calendar years.

This database is only available for searching from a workstation within the library. A librarian can help you get started using this database. You can either print out your search results or download them to your own disk.

 

Finding Trade Leads

Once you have decided that your product will sell in a particular place, you must then find actual buyers. Methods of identifying buyers include trade shows, trade missions, direct mail campaigns, and advertising. You may eventually need an in-country presence through a representative or distributor. However, trade shows and trade leads may be simpler ways of initially reaching potential customers, and the library can assist you in researching both of these areas.

• Trade Shows:

There are a myriad of trade shows, both in the U.S. and abroad, where buyers and sellers can come together to discuss business, and sellers can display their wares. There are organizations on the Web that can help you find trade shows, among them Trade Show Central and the Federation of International Trade Associations. The library also has several print directories of trade shows, including Trade Shows Worldwide.

• Trade Leads (National Trade Data Bank)

Through its "Trade Opportunity Program Leads" and "United Nations Trade Leads," the NTDB offers notices for particular businesses, agencies, and other organizations both in the U.S. and abroad. Each trade lead entry describes the item needed, the buyer, contact information, and how to make a bid. The leads are arranged by date, and are meant to be scanned regularly. However, as in all parts of NTDB you can do a keyword search by country, product, or both.