International Trade
Jeannie Bail
Introduction
An important part of international business is understanding the flow of goods and services between countries. Trade between nations can be influenced by different economic, sociopolitical and legal factors. Often, trade is regulated by agreements that are made between its signatories. For example, in 2018, Canada, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement known as CUSMA to encourage and promote trade between the three North American countries. Its main goal is to facilitate trade in goods, particularly in the agricultural and automotive industries.
In the international arena, a number of Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) exist to regulate trade between members. The biggest one of these is the World Trade Organization (WTO), which emerged out of a previous multilateral initiative called the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
This chapter will introduce you to some of the various governmental and intergovernmental organizations where you can locate import and export data to better understand the flow of goods and services between countries. Trade data can help you understand how these flows are affected by forces like the exchange rate and global events.
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Established in 1995 to provide an institutional framework to implement the principles of the GATT, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the “only international organization dealing with the global rules of trade. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible”. The WTO seeks to lower barriers to trade through a multilateral trading system consisting of agreements that are negotiated, signed and ratified among the world’s largest trading economies. These agreements promote transparency and reliability for international trade among member states.
Here is a short video that introduces the WTO, which was created for its 25th anniversary in 2020:
WTO Data: Information portal to information on tariff and trade data, non-tariff measures, intellectual property, WTO statistics and more.
WTO Trade Policy Reviews: Search Trade Policy Reviews (TPR) by country, which provide an overview and assessment of foreign trade within a given country, including supply management, trade policy developments and key government initiatives.
IGO or Governmental Trade Resources
Canada
- Trade Data Online (Government of Canada): Utilizing data from Statistics Canada and the U.S. Census Bureau, this source makes it possible to to generate customized reports on Canada and U.S. trade in goods with over 200 countries.
- International Trade Data (Government of Canada): Data and market intelligence for export development, importing and foreign investment business planning. Includes import and export trade data, international trade statistics, a list of companies that import goods into Canada, global market trends, tariff information, and more.
- The International Trade Explorer is a d