World Integrated Trade Solution
The World Integrated Trade Solution is a trade database provided by the World Bank for users to query several international trade databases. It allows you to query trade statistics (export, import, re-exports and re-imports) from UN COMTRADE, tariff and non-tariff measures (NTM) data from UNCTAD TRAINS and tariff and bound tariff information from WTO, IDB and CTS databases. It also has a module called Global Preferential Trade Agreement (GPTAD) to search and browse Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It also has modules to calculate several trade indicators and perform tariff cut simulation.
WITS now has two sections. One that provides summary Trade Statistics by Country on total exports, imports, export/import partners, top product groups exported/imported, top exporters and importers in the World. The trade data for each country is divided into four sections. The first section is the Country Profile Summary and provides summary of the key indicators in Trade, Tariffs, Trade Indicators, Top Export and Import partners of the country and top exported products. It also provides development indicators from the World Development Indicator (WDI) such as GDP, GNI per capita, Trade Balance and Trade as percentage of GDP. The next section called country has primarily all country level Trade Indicators, and also indicators from WDI on Merchandise and Services Trade, Trade related taxes and GDP, GNI, GDP per capita and more. The next section is by trading partner and provides the top export or import partners of the country with the trade value, partner share. For exports by default it provides Trade Value and Partner Share, Additional indicators like Total HS 6 digit products traded, and Share in Total Products Traded in percentage can be selected. The imports data at partner level by default as Total Trade, Partner Share, Effectively Applied Weighted Average tariff, and MFN Weighted Average Tariff and number of tariff agreements. Additional indicators such as total number of HS 6 digit level products imported, Product Share as percentage, Simple average tariff effectively applied and MFN tariff, number of dutiable and free lines and more can be selected. The final section is by Product Group and this provides details of exports and imports of the country by various standard product groups like by HS Sector, SITC Revision 2 Standard Product Groups or UNCTAD's Stages of processing. By default the Partner is World but it can be changed to a specific country. For exports by default it provides Trade Value and Product Growth and additional indicators such as Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), World Growth and Product Growth can be selected. For Imports by default it provides Trade Value and Product share in percentage, and effective applied and MFN weighted average tariff is provided for all product groups. Additional indicators such as Simple Average tariff for Effectively Applied an MFN, number of dutiable lines and free lines and much more can be selected. All indicators and country have metadata and the entire metadata can also be viewed in the metadata page. There is a data availability page indicating data availability for each country by year. Many tables and charts can be embedded as widgets in blogs or other html page. This section is also mobile friendly.
The second section of WITS needs Registration and Login and allows users to perform Advanced Analysis and select their own set of country and country groups, product and product groups, bulk download data, analyze trade competitiveness of countries and perform tariff cut simulation. The trade outcomes module provides a flexible array of options. These options include the selection of countries of interest, product classifications, the usage of reported or mirrored data, and the years of the analysis. In addition, users can also create ad-hoc country and product groups or—when relevant—investigate specific trading partners. It is also possible to generate only a subset of indicators and get comparative data on peer countries. The user’s guideline document provides specific details for these options. As an alternative to the indicator by indicator analysis, the software offers a built-in set of choices that the user can automatically employ to generate the set of indicators by section for the country and the year of choice. The output is data for each indicator along with a companion visualization, which can be easily exported in a number of formats. WITS allows you to calculate and visualize the following Trade Indicators;
Country's Share of World Exports
Share of Product in Total Exports
Share of Market in Total Exports
Hirschman Herfindahl index
Revealed Comparative Advantage Index
Trade Intensity Index
Trade Complementarity Index
Export Diversification (or Concentration) Index
Export Specialization Index
Index of Export Market Penetration
Hummels-Klenow (Products) Intensive Margin
Hummels-Klenow (Products) Extensive Margin
Hummels-Klenow (Markets) Intensive Margin
Hummels-Klenow (Markets) Extensive Margin
WITS has a new module called Trade Outcomes Indicators that can be used to review the country-level performance of exports along various dimensions, which together give a comprehensive picture of trade competitiveness. The trade outcomes tool follows the analytical framework developed in the World Bank's Trade Competitiveness Diagnostic toolkit. It provides indicators along four different dimensions of trade performance: (i) the composition, orientation, and growth of exports and imports, (ii) the degree of export diversification across products and markets, (iii) the level of sophistication of a country’s main exports, and (iv) the survival rate of its export relationships. This framework allows the analyst to evaluate the dynamics of the country’s exports along different margins of trade and to benchmark specific countries’ position with respect to their peers. The toolkit can be used to assess the competitiveness of a country’s overall basket of products as well as specific traded sectors. It facilitates the identification of the primary constraints to improved trade competitiveness and the policy responses to overcome these constraints.
WITS has introduced a module for Global Value Chain (GVC) Analysis using the underlying UN Comtrade data on gross exports and imports. The module construct trade indicators related to country’s participation in Global Value Chains (GVCs). Using the informed classifications based on Sturgeon and Memedovic (2011) paper. The module allows measuring GVC related performance through: (i) country analysis, (ii) regional analysis, (iii) inter-regional analysis, and analysis of (iv) individual products of interest.