What is PACComtrade
PACComtrade is the Pacific Commodity Trade Database, a regional initiative designed to provide near real time and detailed information on goods imported and exported by the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). It’s development and launch is a collaborative effort of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Oceania Customs Organisation (OCO), the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), and the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), with technical support from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) - Trade and Industry Statistics Section.
PACComtrade does not replace the existing International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS), rather it complements national publications by offering data at the detailed 6-digit Harmonised System (HS) commodity level with a more frequent release cycle. This provides users with quicker access to detailed trade flows, while national statistics offices continue to publish the official IMTS tables following UN methodologies. This means users can access near real-time trade statistics through PACComtrade, including details on:
- Type of trade (imports, exports, re-exports, re-imports)
- Country of origin and destination
- Commodity descriptions
- Statistical values
- Transport mode
By providing this level of detail, PACComtrade enables governments, policymakers, businesses, researchers, and development partners to monitor regional trade patterns, assess the impact of trade agreements, and respond more timely and effectively to pressing issues such as food security, economic resilience, and non-communicable diseases.
PACComtrade tables downloaded from the platform are fully machine-readable, allowing users to seamlessly import the data into analytical tools and software. This feature enables efficient data manipulation, aggregation, and visualization, supporting a wide range of purposes such as trend analysis, policy assessment, and research. By providing data in a structured, digital format, PACComtrade reduces the time and effort required for manual data processing, enhances accuracy, and allows statisticians and analysts to focus on generating insights.
Source of Data
The data in PACComtrade are sourced directly from Customs Administrations across Pacific Island Countries and Territories, with support from the Oceania Customs Organisation. Many Pacific countries are adopting the UNCTAD Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA), which provides a common customs management platform. This shared system makes it easier to standardize reporting, ensure consistency across countries, and compile trade statistics more efficiently.
To facilitate the process, a data licence agreement is signed between SPC and the respective Customs Departments. This agreement allows SPC to access and share detailed trade data securely and responsibly, ensuring that countries retain ownership of their data while benefiting from regional visibility and analysis.
While PACComtrade presents near real-time customs data, National Statistics Offices (NSOs) continue to validate, supplement, and publish the official IMTS. Together, these complementary processes improve both the timeliness and quality of trade information available for the region.
Data Licence Agreement
To ensure secure and transparent data sharing, the SPC establishes a Data Licence Agreement with each participating Customs Administration. This agreement formalizes the arrangement under which SPC receives detailed customs data for inclusion in PACComtrade, while safeguarding the ownership, confidentiality, and integrity of national data. The licence specifies how the data may be accessed, processed, and disseminated, ensuring that countries retain full control over their information. Through this framework, SPC is able to compile and publish regional trade statistics while respecting national sovereignty and data governance principles.
How the Data are Processed
Trade data are collected directly from ASYCUDAWorld in CSV format using a dedicated SPC user account through an API. Every 15th of the month, the system collects data covering the previous 4 months up to the last day of the previous month. This rolling time window ensures that any revisions or corrections made by customs agents or administrations are captured up to the fourth latest month, so the PACComtrade database always reflects the most up-to-date and accurate trade data.
The extraction and processing are automated through a Python-based program that monitors each execution step. Execution reports (including any potential data issues) are automatically generated, with errors flagged for review. The full extraction and processing cycle takes only 5 minutes, after which .Stat requires an additional 30 minutes to finalize and display the data in the Pacific Data Hub for end users.
The below illustration summarizes the process steps:
Process Model
All processing code are available publicly in GitHub
Data Validation
The data for 3 countries underwent a rigorous validation process, prior to the launch of PACComtrade. Data extracted from ASYCUDAWorld were first processed and tested in a secure environment within SPC’s Pacific Data Hub. Automated checks flagged any inconsistencies, while SPC’s Trade Adviser reviewed outputs against country’s official International Merchandise Trade Statistics.
In addition to these internal checks, two rounds of data validation meetings were held with each country’s NSO and Customs Department. These consultations provided an opportunity to review anomalies, resolve issues, and agree on final datasets prior to publication. This collaborative approach ensured that the information made available through PACComtrade was both accurate and endorsed by the countries themselves.
The differences between PACComtrade outputs and official IMTS data are generally minimal. These small discrepancies arise because PACComtrade relies on automated aggregation, which may follow slightly different reporting conventions and validation processes compared with national IMTS publications. Few NSOs use business survey data instead of Customs entries for certain commodities. Furthermore, discrepancies may also arise from differences in how invalid data are processed by the National Statistical Offices. In PACComtrade, invalid commodity codes are recoded as unknown and flagged in the execution reports for review and correction. With IMTS, countries may edit or impute these codes or data using different methods and techniques. Despite these minor variations, PACComtrade data remains closely aligned with official statistics and provides a reliable foundation for regional analysis and comparative studies.
Does PACComtrade replace Official IMTS
PACComtrade does not replace a country’s official International Merchandise Trade Statistics publications. Rather, it serves as a complementary platform that facilitates the automated collection, aggregation, and preliminary analysis of trade data from national sources. While PACComtrade can provide timely and consistent trade information for regional analysis and comparison, the official country IMTS releases remain the authoritative source for national trade statistics, policy decisions, and reporting to international organizations. In essence, PACComtrade enhances access and usability of trade data without substituting the formal national publications.
PACComtrade and UN Comtrade Database
PACComtrade and UN Comtrade are linked in that both platforms provide access to international trade data, but they differ in scope, coverage, and purpose. UN Comtrade is a global database maintained by the United Nations, offering standardized trade data reported by countries worldwide, primarily for international comparison and global analysis. PACComtrade, on the other hand, focuses specifically on the Pacific region, aggregating national international trade data to support regional analysis, and timely decision-making. While PACComtrade may draw on UN Comtrade data for cross-checking or benchmarking, it provides additional functionalities tailored to the needs of Pacific Island countries, such as automated reporting, and regional aggregation.
While UN Comtrade data may experience delays due to the time required for countries to finalize and submit their statistics, PACComtrade, by being directly linked to national ASYCUDA systems, offers more timely access to trade data for the Pacific region.
PACComtrade and Pacific Food Trade Database
The Pacific Food Trade Database (PFTD) and PACComtrade differ in focus, sources, and purpose. PFTD is specifically designed to track food and beverage trade in Pacific Island Countries and Territories, combining official IMTS statistics and national records, while supplementing gaps with international sources. It provides cleaned and harmonized historical data from 1995 to 2022, including both quantities and values, and is primarily used for research, food security, and nutrition analysis. A key feature of the PFTD is its methodological approach to data cleaning, which enhances the accuracy and reliability of the information. Researchers from the University of Wollongong and SPC had collaborated with regional experts to compile and refine the data, addressing inconsistencies and gaps commonly found in international trade statistics.
PACComtrade, in contrast, covers overall merchandise trade across the Pacific region and is directly linked to national ASYCUDA systems, allowing near real-time access to trade data. PACComtrade focuses on operational and policy analysis, providing timely and machine-readable trade statistics for all commodities. In essence, PFTD emphasizes historical, food-specific, research-ready datasets, whereas PACComtrade emphasizes timely, comprehensive, and policy-oriented trade monitoring.
Future Developments
Currently, PACComtrade contains data for three countries—Tonga, Tuvalu, and Kiribati—with Vanuatu’s data to be added by 2026. SPC is hopeful that, through continued collaboration with OCO, more Pacific countries will sign data licence agreements, thereby allowing for broader coverage of the region’s international trade. For larger economies where data sharing is governed by stricter legal provisions, SPC looks forward to the possibility of being formally recognised as a recipient of customs and tax data within the framework of national Tax and Customs Acts, so that their trade can also be reflected in PACComtrade in a manner consistent with national laws and practices.