This guide will introduce you to the Comtrade Express Selection interface by carrying out a simple and hopefully typical research task using the United Nation Comtrade database.

Unlike the other datasets we host, UN Comtrade is not available via Beyond 20/20.

Visualise and download data concerning snails imported to France from all countries between 1999 to 2008

It is divided into three stages:

1. Finding and selecting the data
2. Visualising the data
3. Downloading the data

Approx. time to complete: 15 minutes.

For help, please contact the ESDS International team.

Stage i) Finding and selecting the data

Choose UN Comtrade from the 'Direct Links to data' drop down list on the ESDS International website, or via the following url – http://comtrade.mimas.ac.uk/db to access the UN Comtrade data.

Input your UK HE/FE Institutional username and password in the login window. If you do not have an institutional id, please visit the login help pages within the Access and Preservation section of ESDS.

If you have not already registered with the ESDS you will then be automatically redirected to complete an online registration after which you will need to agree to the United Nations special conditions prior to being able to access the data using only your UK HE/FE Institutional username and password..

Unlike the other datasets we host, UN Comtrade is not available via Beyond 20/20. Access is via the UN Comtrade interface. UN Comtrade offers several ways to query data, we recommend using the “express selection” feature, as it’s easy to use, and contains a wider range of options.

Please note that UN Comtrade works best with Internet Explorer, we therefore recommend using this browser if possible. In other browsers some pages might not work properly.

On entering the UN Comtrade database home page, select the Data query menu, and click “Express selection”

Select the HS as reported radio button. See the UNs FAQ: Which classification system is appropriate to use? for details.

For commodity code, click lookup and a new window will appear

• Type snails into the search box, and expand the boxes until you reach 030760 snails, other than sea snails, then tick the checkbox
• Tick the box
• You may need to scroll to the right in order to complete the following:
• Click “add” (or double click)
• Click “Apply & close” which will return you to the express selection screen

In the Reporters Codes / Text box type in France (alternatively you can select France via the lookup function as described above)

In the Partners Codes / Text box type in all

For Years click lookup and as before select all years from 2004 to 2008

Tick the Import checkbox

Once you are happy with your selection click submit query

If it is your first time using Comtrade (using another computer or cleared your cookies) then a page named "Read Me First" will be displayed. Have a read through, tick the box and click the continue link.

Stage ii) Visualising the data

The results now appear on the screen. You can change the order in which the rows are displayed by selecting the "sort order" dropdown box. You cannot change the order of the columns. Notice that the results are displayed 20 per page.

View graphs by clicking the View Graph & Map link

The top 6 import partner results are displayed in a table, and a piechart giving these results are also given, hover your mouse over the piechart to find out the partner names. There is also a line chart, which plots the total imports through recent years.

You can see the data on a map by clicking the “View map” link. Larger circles indicate that that country imports a greater quantity of snails to France.

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Stage iii) Downloading the data

Close the map screen and then use your browser's back button to return to the results screen

You can change the order in which the rows are displayed by selecting the "sort order" dropdown box. You cannot change the order of the columns. The data can be downloaded in .csv format by clicking the Download link (there is also an SDMX download option).

The rest of the process is the same as downloading any file from the web.

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Tested on Internet Explorer 7
Tested on Firefox 3 (all works accept map visualisation)