**GLOBUS & NTDB**

**What are the Major Areas?**

The GLOBUS & NTDB section has ten major sections:

-   **Trade News:** This section contains information about major
    updates.

-   **Today\'s Globus Business Opportunity Leads**: Here are the current
    day\'s business opportunities. These include overseas purchasing
    requests (Trade Opportunity Program \[TOPs\], International
    Marketing Insight \[IMI\], and Agricultural \[Ag\] trade leads) as
    well as domestic US government procurements (Commerce Business Daily
    \[CBD\], Defense Logistics Agency \[DLA\]), and the State and Local
    Government leads.

-   **Current Exchange Rates**: These are the Federal Reserve Board\'s
    Noon and 10am postings of exchange rates as well as time series
    data.

-   **Current and Historical Trade Leads**: These are the business
    opportunity leads seen before (TOPs, Ag, CBD, and DLA leads\--IMI
    leads are in the next section) as well as trade leads posted through
    the United Nations\' ETO system and state and local government
    procurement leads. Instead of being just today\'s leads, these leads
    go back three months or more.

**Note:** Historical IMI leads are found in the \"Market and Country
Research\" sub-section instead of being here.

**Note:** If you are a foreign company, go to your US embassy\'s
commercial attache to get your purchase requests added to our TOPS
reporting service. We\'re sorry but there\'s no equivalent Commerce
service for US companies seeking to buy or sell anything. Nor does the
US government provide support for foreign companies seeking to sell
things.

**Note:** Companies can submit trade leads of any kind through the
United Nations\' Electronic Trading Opportunities (ETO) system. This can
be done on their Web site at [http://www.unicc.org/untpdc]{.underline}
Leads posted on that site will appear on the STAT-USA/Internet site.

-   **Market and Country Research:** Here\'s where International
    Marketing Insight (IMI) and Industry Sector Analysis (ISA) reports
    for yesterday or before can be found. Additionally, this section has
    other components of the International Trade Administration and
    USDA\'s market research items, such as the Best Market Reports,
    Foreign Agricultural Market Reports AGWORLD), Pacific Rim Reports,
    and the Multilateral Development Bank reports. This section also
    includes the very popular Country Commercial Guides.

**Note:** After three months, IMI reports are combined with Industry
Sector Analysis (ISA) reports in one area called \"Market Research
Reports\". So if you want IMI\'s that are more than 3 months old, search
through the menu pick for \"Market Research Reports Historical
Archives\".

-   **International Trade Statistics:** Here are US import and export
    merchandise trade statistics. Data are presented on a 10-digit basis
    by country. For US exports, we have at least five years of trade
    data plus current year-to-date data. For US imports, we have at
    least three years of data.

-   **Current Press Releases:** This section contains press releases
    related to trade.

-   **Contacts:** This contains a variety of company names within and
    outside the United States as well as trade resource centers within
    the US.

**Note:** Commerce has not updated the Commercial Service International
Contacts (CSIC) data base since August 1996. We hope that it will come
back online at some point.

-   **Note:** The Export Yellow Pages has been replaced by the US
    Exporters\' Yellow Pages. Look for it to appear shortly on our site.

-   **Other:** This section contains a few items including \"Search the
    Entire National Trade Data Bank\" which links to the International
    Trade Library (see below).

-   **International Trade Library:** This contains everything from the
    National Trade Data Bank on CD-ROM in a full-text searchable
    environment.

**Note:** The NTDB data base is updated once per month. It is a
full-text searchable version of the current CD-ROM only; it does not
have any archival information removed from the CD-ROM.

**Note:** The State of Origin of Exports (MISER) data from the CD-ROM
are not available on the STAT-USA/Internet site. Other than that,
everything from the CD-ROM is available on the Internet site.

**Trade Leads**

**TOPS: Trade Opportunity Program leads:** These trade leads are from
foreign companies and governments. They\'ve contacted a US embassy
abroad to say they want to buy a product like widgets with such-and-such
specifications. They\'re requesting suppliers to contact them.

-   **Today\'s leads:** Available under \"Today\'s Global Business
    Opportunity Leads\" \| \"3:00pm \-- Trade Opportunity Program (TOP)
    Leads\" after 3pm Eastern time.

-   **Leads for last one-to-three months:** Available under \"Current
    and Historical Trade Leads\" \| \"Trade Opportunity Program Leads (1
    month)\".

-   **Leads for last two years:** Available under \"Current and
    Historical Trade Leads\" \| \"Trade Opportunity Program Leads (2
    years)\". **Note:** The two-year TOPS data base is only updated once
    a month. As such, recent leads will not show up in it. Pick the
    \"Trade Opportunity Program Leads (3 months)\" option instead if you
    want to make sure the have the most current leads.

**IMI: International Marketing Insight Reports:** These include a number
of \"hot\" topics including procurement activities by some major world
banks. These leads are created by Commercial officers in US embassies
overseas.

-   **Today\'s leads:** Available under \"Today\'s Global Business
    Opportunity Leads\" \| \"3:00pm \-- International Marketing Insight
    (IMI) Reports\" after 3pm Eastern time.

-   **Leads for last three months:** Available under \"Market and
    Country Research\" \| \"International Marketing Insight (IMI)
    Reports (3 months)\".

-   **Leads for last two years:** Available under \"Market and Country
    Research\" \| \"Market Research Reports Historical Archive\".
    **Note:** As with the two-year TOPS data base, the historical
    archive of Market Research Reports is only updated once a month. As
    such, recent leads will not show up in it. Pick the \"International
    Marketing Insight (IMI) Reports (3 months)\" option instead if you
    want to make sure the have the most current leads.

**Agricultural Trade Leads:** These leads come from the US Department of
Agriculture. They are usually posted four (out of five) days a week.

-   **Today\'s leads:** Available under \"Today\'s Global Business
    Opportunity Leads\" \| \"5:00pm Agricultural Trade Leads\" after 5pm
    Eastern time. Do not search for them before 5pm each day as the file
    will not be there. If they are not there after 5pm, it may be one of
    the days they are not posted.

-   **Leads for last three months:** Available under \"Current and
    Historical Trade Leads\" \| \"Agricultural Trade Leads (3 months)\".

**CBD: Commerce Business Daily Leads:** Every US civilian government
procurement activity of \$25,000 or more must be advertised through the
Commerce Business Daily. Frequently, these procurements have already
been awarded (and, in fact, will show up as such) but, being major
procurements, the primary contractor may need sub-contractors. CBD leads
are identified by service detail codes.

-   **Today\'s leads:** Available under \"Today\'s Global Business
    Opportunity Leads\" \| \"9:00am Commerce Business Daily Leads\"
    after 9am Eastern time.

-   **Leads for last three months:** Available under \"Current and
    Historical Trade Leads\" \| \"Commerce Business Daily Leads (3
    months)\".

**DLA: Defense Logistics Agency Leads:** These procurement leads are put
out by the Department of Defense and are roughly equivalent to the CBD
leads. Recognize that the Defense Department has exacting standards for
parts in order to insure interchangability of parts and that the
production standards for DOD are considerably tighter than for most
products. As such, your company is going to have to be minutely
acquainted to DOD rules, standards, and classification systems before
attempting to compete on one of these activities.

-   **Today\'s leads:** Available under \"Today\'s Global Business
    Opportunity Leads\" \| \"Defense Logistics Agency Leads\" after 9am
    Eastern time.

-   **Leads for last three months:** Available under \"Current and
    Historical Trade Leads\" \| \"Defense Logistics Agency Leads (3
    months)\".

**Merchandise Trade Data (Imports & Exports)**

The United States records all merchandise trade imports and exports by
10-digit Harmonized System (HS) number. The HS system is common across
countries (and for both imports and exports) on a 6-digit basis and the
US has added additional digits for statistical purposes. For a number of
reasons, the import codes and then export codes do not always agree with
each other and there are, in fact, about 8,000 10-digit export commodity
codes and 14,000 10-digit import commodity codes.

For each of these 10-digit items, the US Government collects import and
export statistics by dollar value. About 85 percent of the commodities
also have quantity figures.

STAT-USA has this value and quantity (where available) information for
all 10-digit commodities and all countries that the US reports trade
with. This shows up in the \"International Trade Statistics\" section of
the GLOBUS & NTDB page. For US exports, STAT-USA has five full years of
annual data and two year-to-date periods (for example, a total for
January to June 1998 and then for January to June 1997). For US imports,
STAT-USA has three full years of annual data and two year-to-date
periods.

To find trade for a commodity, go to the \"International Trade
Statistics\" section and select either \"U.S. Exports by Commodity\" or
\"U.S. Imports by Commodity\". Note that there are several different
data formats in which the trade data are available and the section
itself tells you what time period the data are through in each format.

Once you select either \"U.S. Exports by Commodity\" or \"U.S. Imports
by Commodity\", you\'ll get a list of commodities. You can scroll
through the page or use the **\[Previous Page\]** and **\[Next Page\]**
links to get more pages of items. If you click on the \"**\[Search\]**\"
link, you will be prompted for string to search for. You can enter any
of the following:

**A ten-digit HS commodity number**: In our case, we\'re searching for
hang gliders which has a 10-digit Harmonized System number 8801100030 so
we would put \"**8801100030**\" (without the quotes).

**Note:** Do not include any periods in the commodity number.

**Note**: Some publications show an eleventh digit (or \"check digit\").
Only enter the first ten characters of the code.

**A six-digit HS commodity number**: These should be entered as the
number with the letters \"HS\" in front. In our case, you would enter
\"**HS880110**\" (without the quotes).

**Note:** All trade data are reported on a ten-digit, not six-digit,
basis. As such, you may get more than one commodity number back when you
enter a search like this. If you want the six-digit total, you\'ll have
to download **all** of the commodities shown and aggregate them on your
own.

**The commodity description**: Typically, you\'d enter only a partial
description, typically one word (like \"polyurethane\"). If you have
more than one word to enter, include \"and\" between the words. In our
case, you would enter \"**hang and glider**\" (without the quotes).

**Note**: Commodity descriptions are often abbreviated. If you don\'t
find what you want, try different words or drop one of the words you
searched for.

**The SIC number**: If you know the four-digit Standard Industrial
Classification number (a US-government construct), you can enter that.
You need to include the letters \"SIC\" immediately in front of the four
digits. In our case, you would enter \"**SIC3721**\" (without the
quotes). Since you are limited to the number of \"hits\" that will be
returned for any search, you may not be able to see all of the ten-digit
HS commodities that are valid for that given SIC number.

Once you do a search, you will typically get a screen back with multiple
hits.

There will usually be some links to descriptive lists which show up in
the listing. For example, above you\'ll see \"HS 2-, 4-, and 6-digit
descriptions\", \"Cross-classification tables\", and \"SITC
descriptions\". You can download these if you want. They contain a list
of all commodities which are valid in the merchandise trade section.

The \"Cross-classification tables\" file is a huge (700,000 bytes or so)
file which contains all 10-digit Harmonized System numbers, their
corresponding commodity descriptions, SIC, SITC, and end-use
classification codes.

Presuming you want the export and import values instead of just the
commodity listings, you will want to click on one of the items shown
that starts with the ten-digit Harmonized System number. There are three
formats available, and each is noted in the description:

-   **ASCII-delimited File**: This version has the country names in
    quotes and the data with numbers around it. This looks like the
    following:

![](media/image1.png){width="5.249305555555556in"
height="2.9159722222222224in"}

This data is useful for loading into a data base or spreadsheet.

**Note:** Notice the descriptive information shown in the file. The 2nd,
4th, sets of data are footnotes. In the case of zero data values, there
may be an associated footnote which will be \"1\" if the value rounds to
zero instead of being a valid zero value. For other data values, the
footnote is irrelevant. In most cases, you\'ll want to ignore these
columns entirely. For the example shown above, the \"World\" line has
807 (thousand) as the value of trade in Jan-Nov 1998, the \"0\" footnote
should be ignore, and then it\'s 815 (thousand) as the value of trade in
Jan-Nov 1997.

-   **Wk1 Worksheet:** This file type can be directly loaded into a
    worksheet. If you have file associations arranged correctly, your
    spreadsheet program (Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, whatever) will
    come up automatically when you click on this file type. Otherwise,
    you can try the \"Run this program from its current location\"
    prompt which may come up. Finally, if all else fails, you\'ll have
    to save the file to you disk drive and load it from your spreadsheet
    program.

-   **Text Format:** This is the version that you can view on-screen. It
    is the only one of the three versions not labeled.

-   **Note:** Your browser may incorrectly cut and paste these data into
    applications. You may have to cut and paste them into Notepad first
    and then cut and paste from there.

-   **Note:** You will not be able to print this page without some of
    the columns of numbers being cut off. You may have to go into Page
    Setup and select landscape instead of portrait. Under Internet
    Explorer, you can go into **View \| Fonts\...** and pick the
    **Smallest** option. That may help

# International Trade Library

If you want to do broad searches across the GLOBUS & NTDB page, there
are two options available:

> **International Trade Library**: This is a search option which allows
> you to search for anything in the GLOBUS & NTDB page which has not
> already been itemized. The National Trade Data Bank CD-ROM consists of
> hundreds of \"information programs\" and only the most popular ones
> are made directly available to you on the main page. For example, if
> you want to access the Army Area Handbooks, these are in the
> International Trade Library.
>
> **Search the entire NTDB:** This search option searches across all
> reports in the GLOBUS & NTDB section. Market Research Reports, Trade
> Opportunity Program leads, etc are all in this section. This option is
> described in a later section.
>
> Note that the International Trade Library is based on the contents of
> the National Trade Data Bank CD-ROM product. This CD-ROM is updated
> monthly. As such, the items in the International Trade Library are
> only updated once a month.

There are two ways to get to the International Trade Library. One way is
to go all the way to the bottom of the GLOBUS & NTDB page and select
\"**The International Trade Library**\" at the bottom. You can also get
here by clicking on the \"**\[Trade Library\]**\" link at the top of the
GLOBUS & NTDB page.

The screen will present a list of \"information programs\" in the
National Trade Data Bank. There will be little blue triangles next to
each item. Click on one of the triangles and the information program
next to it \"expands\", listing the document titles within that program.
Clicking on the title of the document will bring up that report.

You can also search the library by clicking the \"**\[Search\]**\" link.
Searching is done the same way it\'s done elsewhere on the
STAT-USA/Internet site. If you have multiple words to search (such as
\"china textiles\"), make you include the word \"and\" between each word
(e.g. \"china and textiles\").

**Searching the Entire NTDB**

If you select the \"**Search Entire NTDB**\" option from the main GLOBUS
& NTDB screen, you will get a search screen that looks similar to that
shown for the International Trade Library. The difference is that
you\'re searching across everything in the GLOBUS & NTDB section, not
just the items that weren\'t referenced elsewhere.