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Trade via the CLI

The trade command fetches the canonical trade data from the UN Comtrade API. Four sub-subcommands cover exports, imports, balance, and tariffline.

Purpose

This page covers each trade sub-subcommand in detail, with flags, output formats, and shell-composition patterns.

Prerequisites

  • un-comtrade-sdk installed.
  • The un-comtrade script on your PATH.
  • For authenticated endpoints, UN_COMTRADE_KEY set.

Walkthrough

Fetch exports

un-comtrade trade exports --reporter 699 --period 2022 --partner 0

Output (json default):

{
  "records": [
    {
      "ref_period_id": 2022,
      "reporter_code": 699,
      "partner_code": 0,
      "flow_code": "X",
      "cmd_code": "TOTAL",
      "primary_value": "452684213646.747"
    }
  ],
  "aggregate_total": "452684213646.747"
}

Fetch imports

un-comtrade trade imports --reporter 699 --period 2022 --partner 0

Fetch the trade balance

un-comtrade trade balance --reporter 699 --period 2022

Fetch tariffline data

un-comtrade trade tariffline --reporter 699 --period 2022 --hs 854231

Period range

un-comtrade trade exports --reporter 699 --period 2010,2011,2012,2013 --partner 0

HS chapter filter

un-comtrade trade exports --reporter 699 --period 2022 --hs 84

Output formats

un-comtrade trade exports --reporter 699 --period 2022 --output-format markdown

See CLI → Output formats for the five formats.

Examples

A Markdown table of 2022 exports:

un-comtrade trade exports --reporter 699 --period 2022 \
    --output-format markdown

A two-decade trend in CSV:

for year in $(seq 2010 2023); do
    un-comtrade trade exports --reporter 699 --period $year --partner 0 \
        --output-format csv \
        | tail -n +2
done > india_exports_2010_2023.csv

A partner-specific drill-down:

un-comtrade trade exports --reporter 699 --period 2022 --partner 842 \
    --output-format json \
    | jq '.aggregate_total'
# → "78310876432.18"
  • RECIPE-095 — Drive trade commands from the CLI.

Next steps