Global Trade Data: Shipment-Level Customs Records and Coverage
Every trade data vendor advertises one big country count. Ours comes in two layers you can tell apart: customs feeds we license directly and countries derived through mirror trade. Below, how each layer works, and the six questions that expose any provider in one demo call. Including us.
How global trade data is really assembled.
No provider on earth licenses every country’s customs feed. Some markets simply don’t publish shipment-level records, so global coverage is built in two layers.
Direct customs feeds
Shipment-level records
- Row-level records: one line per official customs declaration.
- Named buyers and named suppliers in 38 of the 43 markets.
- Fresh filings weekly — some markets daily — as partner customs feeds push new records.
Mirror-derived countries
Reconstructed from partner flows
- When a country doesn’t publish its feed, its trade still appears in everyone else’s.
- We read every export declaration shipped INTO that market to reconstruct its imports.
- Example: see who Ghana buys from by reading each country that exports to Ghana.
- Always labeled as mirror-derived, never passed off as a direct feed.
Both layers are trade data; only one of them can be traced to a single declaration. The shipment-level layer is what you build call lists, price benchmarks and supplier vetting from. The mirror layer sizes markets and maps lanes.
Six questions that expose any trade data provider.
Ask these on the demo call. We’ve put our own answers next to each one, because a checklist you’re afraid of is a confession.
01Does it name the buyer?
Country totals can’t be called. Ask which markets carry named importers and suppliers, and expect a straight number. Ours is on the direct-feed card above.
02Can every figure be traced to a customs record?
If a number can’t point back to the declaration it came from, it’s an estimate wearing a suit. Traceability is the line between customs-grade and scraped.
03Is direct coverage separated from derived coverage?
Every vendor blends licensed feeds with mirror derivation. Ask which layer each answer comes from, and walk away from a single unexplained country count.
04Is the pricing published?
A provider that hides pricing behind “contact sales” is planning to price you by your desperation. Ours is published, plan by plan, in the FAQ below.
05Will they demo on YOUR data?
A canned walkthrough proves the software runs. A live search on your HS code and markets proves the data covers you. Accept nothing less before paying.
06How often does it refresh, per surface?
A buyer who imported monthly can go quiet in 90 days. Regularly refreshed feeds with a visible refresh date per surface keep your call list warm, not archival.
One dataset. Six jobs teams actually hire it for.
Find the buyers already buying
Search who imported your HS code this quarter — named importers with ports, quantities and declared prices — and build a call list out of real demand.
Explore import dataRead the outbound ledger
Your competitors’ export declarations: who they ship to, how often, at what declared FOB. Benchmark before you quote.
Explore export dataWork the record itself
Every conclusion traces to one artifact: the customs shipment record. See each field it holds and the question it answers.
See what a record holdsVet a supplier before the deposit
Read a factory’s real export history — capacity, cadence, destinations, price band — instead of trusting a profile page.
Explore supplier dataCheck a buyer is real
Before you extend terms or ship on credit: does this company actually import, at what volume, from how many suppliers, and for how long?
Explore buyer dataSee the market move
The layer above the records: which lanes are growing, which buyers switched suppliers, where prices are drifting quarter over quarter.
Explore trade intelligenceCustoms-grade only
Official customs declarations from national feeds, nothing else.
Fresh filings weekly
Global trade data is a live feed of demand, not an annual statistical yearbook.
Named companies
Real companies you can contact, not “Importer #4837”.
Test the foundations free, before any demo.
The reference layers under our trade data are open to everyone: all 5,612 WCO codes in the HS Code Directory, plain-language lookup in the HS Classifier, duty estimates in the Landed Cost Calculator, and 38,000+ restricted parties in Sanctions Screening.
Trade data by country
Imports and exports for each country, product by product: yearly trends since 2017, partner countries on an interactive map and average prices. Public statistics, latest reported year 2024.
Port by port: port trade data.
North America
- United States trade data$5020.75B
Europe
- United Kingdom trade data$1144.41B
Middle East
- Bahrain trade data$35.43B
- Jordan trade data$31.55B
- Kuwait trade data$103.13B
- Oman trade data$94.27B
- Qatar trade data$125.69B
- Saudi Arabia trade data$528.77B
- United Arab Emirates trade data$620.61B
Trade data sources: from customs declarations to your search
Every record starts as paperwork. A company moving goods across a border files a customs declaration with its national authority. That filing is the raw material for everything you search.
The path from filing to screen has four general steps. It is not a country-specific timetable.
- Filing: the importer or exporter declares the goods to customs.
- Licensing: a partner database holds the customs feed, and we license it.
- Loading: new records are added to the platform as the partner feed delivers them.
- Searching: you query the database by HS code, market or company.
Shipment-level records: what one trade record holds
A single row is small, but each field answers a different commercial question. The example below is illustrative only and uses no real company or value.
Example: Importer: Sample Importer Ltd. Supplier: Sample Exporter Co. HS code: a six-digit product code. Port: the port of entry. Date: the day of the shipment. Quantity: units or weight. Declared value: the amount stated on the filing.
- Importer and supplier show who to contact and who trades with whom.
- The HS code pins down the exact product, not a loose category.
- Port and date show the route and how recently the buyer was active.
- Quantity and declared value let you work out a unit price to benchmark.
- Read several rows for one company to see cadence, not just one order.
HS code search in a global trade database
HS code search is the quickest way into the data. It keeps you on one product and avoids the noise of keyword guesses.
Start by confirming your code. If you are unsure, use the HS code finder or browse the HS code list. Then pick the markets you sell into or want to enter. Narrow the results by date and port. Finally, open the named importers and suppliers and read their shipment history.
To turn those results into a prospect list, follow our guide to finding importers by HS code. To see whether your target market is covered before you commit, book a free demo and we run the search on your own code.
Global trade data, asked and answered.
What is global trade data?
Global trade data is the record of goods crossing borders, assembled from the import and export declarations that companies file with national customs authorities. Read at shipment level, it tells you which company traded what, with whom, through which port and at what price.
What’s the difference between trade data and trade statistics?
Statistics are totals: country X exported $2B of Y last year. Trade data at shipment level is records: this company shipped this quantity to this named buyer at this declared value on this date. You cannot contact a total.
How do I choose a trade data provider?
Put the six-question checklist above to every vendor on your shortlist, on their demo call, and compare the answers side by side. Any vendor who dodges two of the six is telling you something.
Is this scraped from B2B marketplaces?
No. Marketplace listings tell you who wants to appear in trade; customs records tell you who actually trades, and only the second kind goes into EximDataX.
How much does global trade data cost, and how do I see mine?
Published openly: $1,100 for 6 months or $1,800 for 12 months of platform access, plus $299/month if you want a Trade Desk specialist to work the data for you. Seeing your own markets before you pay costs nothing, through the live demo or the free account.
Which countries does the global trade data cover?
All 227 countries, each one either a direct customs feed or mirror-derived, as the two layers above explain. If one market matters most to you, check which layer it sits in before you buy.
Can I try the global trade database for free?
Yes. A free 3-day account opens our 2021 archive of genuine customs records, with no credit card needed. Paid accounts show the most recent months.
Do mirror-derived countries show named companies?
Treat mirror-derived results as market views, not contact lists. For names to call, run the same HS code search in a direct-feed market.
Explore the data
See what your buyers are buying.Then decide.
Everything we show you comes from official customs filings — records, not claims. 30 minutes. Your shipment. Your HS code. Real platform. If you don’t see something new about your market by the end of the call, we walk away. No follow-ups.