Contents: Commodity and industry data for 160 countries/territories from 1980, focusing on world imports and exports. It presents to the user a complete matrix of country trade flows at both a commodity and industry level. The database enables users to calculate market shares of anyone in any market defined in terms of geography, or commodity; perform standard "constant" market share calculations as a means to measure countries penetration in selected markets; compare the pace of change in the country and commodity structure of trade over time between different trading nations. Commodity data are classified according to the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) and industries according to the Canadian Standard Industrial Classification. The data are annual and the records currently extend over the period 1980-1994.

Getting started: Load CD-ROM and in MSDOS mode at the C:\ prompt type wtdb. Follow the on screen instructions.

Navigation: First, use the up and down arrows to navigate the on screen menu and to highlight the import country, export country, the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) commodity code, and time period options. Second, use the tab key and the left and right arrows to navigate the tool bar and press enter, or simply select the appropriate function key to open the dialogue box for the initially selected option. Use the up, down arrows, the page-up, page-down, the home and/or end keys to navigate the menus within the dialogue boxes and press enter to select the appropriate criteria.

Help: Press F1 to select the help menu.

Sources of other documentation: Data Liberation Initiative (DLI).
Local DLI contact.
Statistics Canada IPS catalogue.
Useful information for manufacturers and exporters.1st ed./ Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada, eb. 1999. (31-532-GIE)(html format).
Products and services of the International Trade Division./ Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada, 1995 (65F0010XPE).

Features/hints

Selecting:  Press F2: Browse and use the up, down arrows, the page-up, page-down, the home and/or end keys to navigate the menus within the dialogue boxes. Press enter to select the appropriate geographical, commodity code and temporal criteria.

Manipulating: Press F1: Help to variety of boolean characters can be used to manipulate search terms. Press F9: Options, select Search options (ALT-R) and use the left or right arrows to customize your search selection. Press F4: Query and select Clear (ALT-C) to delete entries in the current field. Press F9: Options and select Windows to manipulate windows screen.

Downloading: Press F4: Query and select Save (ALT-C) to download data. 

Printing: No printing capabilities.

Exiting: Either press F10-Quit or press F9-Options, select Windows and hit Close window (Alt-F10).

Limitations: Data has to be save and uploaded into another program with printing capabilities to make hard copies.

Alternative sources of these data: The International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The World Bank.

Cheat Sheet by: Daniel Warchow.
Data Library, University of Toronto.
Date: 08/07/99.