Knowledge - DataOnTrade

    Many foreign trade partners' understanding of customs data is only at the level of how to find a contact person. If only this point is used, the maximum benefits of effective use of customs data will not be achieved.
    Today we will integrate and summarize a series of common problems in the process of using customs data and share them with you to help you have a deeper understanding of customs data and facilitate timely viewing and learning. We recommend collecting and forwarding to friends who are connected with customs data.

Q1: What is customs data?
Customs data comes from manifests, bills of lading, customs clearance data of various countries, including specific information of each import and export transaction, such as product description, price, weight, volume, origin, destination country, consignor, consignee, etc. . If this information is wrong, the customs has the right to detain the goods under a false name, so as long as the customs data provided through formal channels must be true and accurate.

Q2: What is the value of customs data?
Customs data has always played an important role in international trade. It is not only one of the necessary tools for foreign trade customer development, but also the data support for the company's market operations.
There are mainly the following usage scenarios:
1. Analyze market trends and understand industry changes.
2. Develop foreign trade customers and quickly screen buyers.
3. Maintain customers and monitor peers, master the buying rules of buyers, and consolidate existing customers.

Q3: Why is there no customer contact information?
Customs data basically has no customer contact information. I believe that those who have actual experience in foreign trade declarations are very clear that the customer contact information in the customs declaration documents is optional and belongs to personal privacy information. So most people don't fill in their own contact information, just fill in the company name and transaction information. Some customs data claiming to have customer contact information on the market are re-matched through email crawling software and third-party business directory procurement. It is precisely because there is no customer contact information on the customs data, so many customers still need precise development. So, to get down to business, we still recommend that while using customs data, we can cooperate with search engines and SNS platforms (such as Google search, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), and formulate a development search plan, regularly and quantitatively screen potential customers, and finally realize Precision development. ‍

Q4: Is the customs data updated in time?
Don't worry about this. For different countries, the latest data will be regularly updated according to a relatively stable cycle. However, sometimes the update time is affected by the dynamics of the local situation in each country. But as a reminder, at the level of customer development, it is more important to make good use of previous data. If you don't master the development method, even if it is the latest data, I don't think the new data may be of great help to you.

Q5: Do customs data need to be searched in different languages?
The data information comes from the customs record system of the importing country, so the general cargo information and the name of the importer's company will use the local native language. Therefore, we should be flexible about the product description and the name of the importer company. Search in English for English-speaking countries, search in Russian for Russia and Ukraine, and search in corresponding languages for other language countries. ‍

Q6: Which countries currently open their customs data?
North America: United States, Canada, Nica Central America: Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. South America: Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Chile and Guyana.
Europe: Russia, Ukraine, UK, Spain, CIS, Moldova.
Asia: South Korea, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Taiwan Province, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Japan, Turkey, Thailand, and Afghanistan. Africa: Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Liberia, Botswana, Ghana, Cameroon, Lesotho, Namibia, Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa, Nigeria, Chad, Central Africa and Burundi.

Q7: Why do some sellers of customs data say they have customs data of more than 200 countries?
There would actually be a misinformation here. To take the simplest example, when the data source is 40 countries, it can actually be extended to more than 190 countries. For example, Germany does not open its customs data, but Canada's customs data is open, so if there are goods sent from Canada to Germany, the data of Germany can be expanded.

Q8: Do you have sea, land and air traffic data for each country?
At present, except for the bill of lading in the United States and Pakistan, almost all other countries have all the data of transportation (sea, land and air transportation). Therefore, before purchasing or using customs data, you should know your main market and mode of transportation, so as to facilitate subsequent data inquiries.

Q9: Why can't I search data with competitor or buyer company name?
It is possible that the other party is an agent or an export company, so the consignor on the bill of lading is not the English company name of the competitor. In another case, some countries have relevant policies for local import companies, allowing them to block the display of corresponding information. In such cases, no data can be found. ‍

Q10: Is the result of query using 6-digit code accurate?
A 6-digit encoded query is certainly accurate, but precise. The customs data itself provides customs data imported from abroad, not domestic export data, and the natural data is obtained from the customs of various countries. Regarding foreign trade, everyone should know that the international HS code is the first 6 digits, and the latter digits are customized according to the guidelines of each country. Therefore, the extraction of large categories can only be encoded with 6 bits.

Q11: How to use the 6-digit code to realize the precise query of the 8-digit code?
It is recommended to use the purchasing data of peers or foreign benchmark customers to confirm the 8-digit HS code of the current country.

Q13: Why do I get overseas import customs data instead of Chinese customs export data when I develop overseas customers?
Customs data itself belongs to some policy information, and the policies of each country are different. Domestically, the more detailed data of China's export market belongs to the transaction statistics with suppliers, but due to domestic policy reasons, all the data obtained have no foreign buyers