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How to use data sources: World Trade Organisation (WTO)

This is about the The World Trade Organization (WTO) data, who can use it and how to use it.

As a novel start-up in a poorly-researched space, we needed to validate the problems Whirli is solving. Sapio Research were fantastic partners from start to finish – creative in brainstorming angles, careful in designing the questions, and rigorous in analysing the results. The research brought a wealth of insights, backed by hard figures, for our business decision making and for us to talk about publicly in the press.

Nigel Phan
Founder
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This is part of Sapio Research’s series: 16 Useful Desk Research Sources and how to use them

What is it?

The World Trade Organization or WTO deals with the rules of trade between nations. Their goal is to ensure trade flows as smoothly and freely as possible. To aid in its mission, the WTO conducts research; it produces documents, data and other resources on its findings. 

Who can use it?

The WTO posts plenty of its resources online, and they are open for everyone to access. The data provided by the WTO would be useful to businesses in the private sector; the WTO provides trade statistics and tools for trade monitoring. Furthermore, the WTO provides an online service for journalists called the “media newsroom”.

How to use it?

To make use of the WTO resource bank, click “Documents, data and resources” from the headline banner bar.

This will take you to the resource bank, where you can find links to all their online resources including reports and analysis, statistics, and publications.

For tutorial purposes let us examine what statistics the WTO have on offer.

You can make a selection by clicking a category on the navigation bar on the left-hand side of your screen.

I selected “Merchandise trade”. From here I can either choose to view a annual publication or a database. I will demonstrate how to download a database.

First select the data base you want to download.

Next select the format you wish to download the data in. After that open the .zip file and review the data.

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