About USA Trade Online
USA Trade Online, produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, allows the user to create statistical reports detailing exports and imports between the United States and other trading partner countries. These reports can be customized by commodity, country, time period and U.S. port. Furthermore, report results can be ranked to determine top export/import markets. Reports can also be downloaded into a spreadsheet.
Search examples :
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Ranking top export markets for U.S. made wooden furniture
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Ranking top imports from a particular country
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Ranking top countries from which petroleum is imported in the port of Newark, NJ
Example 1
To get started, use the URL usatrade.census.gov and click on Log In. Enter the appropriate User Id and Password. USA Trade Online is freely available on the internet. It requires registering for an account to use:
At the next screen select the data you need such as Exports on the District-Level:
On the next display you will need to make selections in the left-hand box, Report Contents, such as commodity, country and time period. You can search by keywords such as “wooden furniture” in the search box or by checking the appropriate Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) number below if you know it. Be advised that a keyword search will only find the terms used in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. For example, searching the word “oil” will only return information for “mineral oils” and not “petroleum”.
At the Country selection screen, click on the green arrow to the right of (Default member) to select all trading partner countries of the world. Then, uncheck World Total.
Select the period of time for which you need data and click on Report to the right of Report Contents.
We ultimately want to obtain a ranking of top export markets for U.S. wooden furniture. Therefore, we need to move the data elements by dragging Commodity into the Country box.
Thus, countries are displayed alphabetically in the left column.
Clicking the down arrow under 2019 will rank the countries from largest market to lowest. Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, China and Bahamas are the top five export markets for U.S. made wooden furniture.
Select→ Data Source Selection → to begin a new search.
Example 2 : Top Imports From a Particular Country
Example 2. Top imports from a particular country. Let’s look at Thailand.
Click on Imports to the right of Harmonized System (HS) District-Level Data.
Click on the third green check from the left (Select all 4-digit).
Next, choose your country from the left, then click on the + to the left of World Total to expand the list of all trading member countries. For countries past Spain in the list, you will have to click on the down arrow under the Members tab. Check off Thailand.
Click on Time in the left margin and then choose your time period.
Click on → Report to run your search. At the results screen, click on the down red arrow to rank the top commodities imported from Thailand.
Click on → Data Source Selection → to begin a new search.
Example 3 : Top Exporting Countries of Petroleum to the Port District of Newark, NJ
Click on Imports to the right of HS Port-Level Data
Search the keyword “petroleum” in the search box and click on the magnifying glass to the right of the box.. (NB: “oil” means mineral/vegetable oil).
Choosing number 2709 Crude Oil from Petroleum and Bituminous Minerals will give you a result encompassing all types of crude oil.
Select Country from the left menu, then click on the green checkmark to the right of World Total (Default member). Uncheck the blue checkmark to the left of World Total.
Next, choose your Time period, ex. 2020 through October.
Click on → Report to run your search.
At the results page, drag Commodity over Country to obtain an alphabetical list of countries in the left column.
Click on the down red arrow to create a ranking of top exporting countries of crude oil to the port of Newark, NJ.
All reports can be exported to a spreadsheet by clicking on the disc icon in the gray toolbar.