EU Trade Explorer

Descriptive and analytical statistics about EU trade and industrial production

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EU Trade Explorer -- MCP bridge

Bridge to the tradedashboard.eu EU Trade Explorer API (Eurostat Comext customs-trade + PRODCOM industrial-production statistics).

Typical Workflow

  1. Resolve the product: If you don't already know the right Combined Nomenclature (CN) product code, call resolve_product_code with a keyword (e.g. "glass jars") or a candidate code. Note that CN nomenclature is often coarser than a colloquial product name. For example, there is no code for "glass jars" alone, only a heading (7010) that bundles jars with bottles and closures; check has_subcodes and the returned hierarchy before assuming a code is a clean match.
  2. Choose your path:
  • Short path: Call get_full_report for a rundown of the most important stats. If you want something quick and simple, you can already stop there, analyse that data, and write your report.
  • Long path: There are close to 28 functions you can call iteratively depending on your angle. Start with get_overview for headline totals, then drill into get_partner_detail, get_reporter_detail, get_concentration, get_specialisation, get_net_import_reliance, etc. as needed.

Query Arguments

All MCP tools accept the same query object with these parameters:

  • product: Combined Nomenclature code(s)
  • reporter: Declaring entity (EU member state, etc.)
  • partner_set: Named partner preset or custom list
  • period_start, period_end: Analysis window (YYYY-MM format)
  • frequency: 'month', 'quarter', or 'year'
  • Plus tool-specific options

Every tool accepts compact=true to condense long numeric time series into summary statistics (first/last/min/max/mean/pct_change) instead of full series. Use this when you just want main trends; omit it when identifying shocks and outliers.

Dashboard Navigation

You typically do not need to plot data yourself. Instead, refer to the relevant menu item/tab on the website. Note: there is no get_url-style tool because dashboard views don't map 1:1 onto bridge tools. A single dashboard tab often combines several tool calls (e.g., the "concentration" tab shows get_concentration for both entity_level='partner' and 'reporter' side by side), so links belong to views (menu+tab), not individual tool responses.

Dashboard Structure

| Menu | Name | Tab | Description | |------|------|-----|-------------| | overview | Overview | overview | Synthesis | | | | partners | Breakdown by trading partner | | | | reporters | Breakdown by EU member state | | | | map-imports | Geographic view of imports | | | | map-exports | Geographic view of exports | | concentration | Market structure | concentration | Evolution of trade concentration | | | | concentration-map | Geographic view of trade concentration | | | | specialisation | Intra-European comparative advantage | | | | production-volumes | Production volumes | | cross-section | Cross-section | compare | Quantities by product | | | (for multi-code or drilling) | product-volatility | Volatility by product | | | | product-concentration | Concentration by product | | volatility | Volatility & shocks | volatility | Volatility | | | | supply-shocks | Sudden volume changes | | | | price-shocks | Rapid price changes | | | | pattern-shifts | Price & volume change summary | | vulnerability | Strategic autonomy | net-import-reliance | Net import reliance | | | | trade-intensity | Trade intensity | | | | export-propensity | Export propensity | | | | subcontracting-intensity | Evolution of sub-contracting intensity | | | | subcontracting-members | Geographical distribution of sub-contracting intensity |

Methodological Notes

These notes are reproduced here so figures can be interpreted and cited correctly:

  • concentration/concentration: The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) measures how concentrated trade is across partners or EU Member States. For each period, it sums the squared market shares of each entity, producing a score from 0 (perfectly spread across many partners) to 10,000 (one partner holds 100% of the market).
  • concentration/specialisation: Intra-EU revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) per member state: whether a member state's share of intra-EU exports for a specific product is larger than its share of intra-EU exports overall. The Balassa index (RCA) compares a member state's export share of the product against its export share of all products (both measured within the EU); RSCA rescales RCA symmetrically onto [-1, 1]: RCA = (x_p / x_total) / (X_p / X_total), RSCA = (RCA - 1) / (RCA + 1), where x is the member state's intra-EU exports and X is the EU total (p = this product, total = all products). -1 is under-specialised, 0 is the EU average, +1 is strongly specialised. Intra-EU flows are distorted by the Rotterdam/Antwerp effect, so read the index with caution.
  • volatility/volatility: Each cell is the coefficient of variation (CV): standard deviation divided by the mean, for a single partner × product pair over the selected period. Inactive periods (zero quantity) are excluded so they don't distort the result. A higher CV means the flow swings more relative to its typical level. Only the most active partners by volume are selected for this tab.
  • volatility/supply-shocks: Detects abnormal collapses in trade volumes. For each partner/product pair with enough sustained activity, the algorithm flags periods where volume drops well below that pair's historical average. To surface more (weaker) shocks: lower the minimum-deviation threshold, raise the cumulative trade share considered, extend tolerated gaps, lower the minimum number of stable years required, or treat any small drop (even ~5%) as a shock.
  • volatility/price-shocks: Detects sudden price variations while accounting for each flow's usual volatility. The algorithm compares each period's price against a retrospective reference window, then flags regime changes whose amplitude exceeds a configurable multiple of the coefficient of variation.
  • volatility/pattern-shifts: Suggested workflow: note the usual volatility of the entities that interest you (via volatility/volatility), check for significant volume/price variations there, use supply-shocks/price-shocks to identify the dates where these are most pronounced, then use one of those dates as query.midpoint.
  • vulnerability/net-import-reliance: NIR expresses net imports (imports minus exports) as a share of domestic consumption in the Union: NIR = (Imports - Exports) / Apparent consumption, where Apparent consumption = Production + Imports - Exports. E.g., 40% means 40% of EU consumption of the product is met by imports; negative means the EU is a net exporter (not import-dependent). Used by the European Commission to determine whether a sector should get particular monitoring or support.
  • vulnerability/trade-intensity: TI measures how open EU27 production is to international trade, following the European Commission's CEEAG methodology (used for State-aid eligibility of sectors at risk of carbon leakage): TI = (Imports + Exports) / (Imports + Production). Close to 1 = highly trade-exposed; near 0 = predominantly domestic.
  • vulnerability/export-propensity: The share of EU27 production sold abroad: Export propensity = Exports / Production. E.g., 60% means 60% of the value produced in the Union is exported; re-exports or stock drawdown can push values above 100%.
  • vulnerability/subcontracting-intensity: The share of EU production manufactured for someone other than the factory's owner: Intensity = Sub-contracted production / Total sold production. Near 100% signals a processing hub with little own R&D; near 0% marks an autonomous industrial base. The own/sub split only exists from 2021 onward in the PRODCOM database.
  • PRODCOM-backed tabs: For concentration/production-volumes and every vulnerability/* tab—when a customs code maps to several PRODCOM codes, figures are aggregated across them, or, if Eurostat suppresses detail at that level, sourced from the nearest available higher aggregate. Use query.prodcom_code to pin one specific mapping instead of relying on that default.
  • Rotterdam/Antwerp caveat: Whenever Belgium or the Netherlands appear as the main trading importer or exporter of a product, beware: it might just be that the bulk of the trade for that product is transiting through Antwerp or Rotterdam.

URL examples:

https://tradedashboard.eu/?product=870380&partner_set=non-EU+countries&period_start=2015-01&period_end=2026-04&frequency=quarter&remove_outliers=true&palette=default&menu=overview&tab=overview

https://tradedashboard.eu/?product=2822|282520&reporter=Custom+group&reporter_members=Bulgaria|Cyprus|Belgium&partner_set=North+America&period_start=2015-01&period_end=2026-04&frequency=quarter&remove_outliers=true&palette=default&lang=nl&menu=overview&tab=overview

Connecting

  • Transport: Streamable HTTP, at https://mcp.tradedashboard.eu/mcp
  • Every request needs a bearer access token (OAuth 2.1) with auto-discovery implemented.
  • A normal MCP client will follow that discovery chain and the login/consent flow automatically the first time you add this URL.
  • The response is a single JSON-RPC object, {'jsonrpc': '2.0', 'id': 1, 'result': {...}}; the tool's own return value is under result.structuredContent (and as text under result.content[0].text). Any tool can be called this way -- params.arguments is just that tool's keyword arguments (query, compact, …) as a JSON object.

Tools (35 total)

  • guidelines_to_write_a_report -- Read this first. Returns the guidelines for how to use this bridge's tools to research and write a trade report -- the recommended workflow (resolve a product code, then either get_full_report for a quick rundown or the individual tools for a deeper dive), the shared query object, and the compact option. Call this before guessing at tool use.
  • get_countries -- Reference data for reporters/partners: selectable EU/Euro-area/member states, named partner presets, predefined reporter/partner groups, and per-language country-name translations. Use this to find valid values for the reporter, partner_set, partners and reporter_members fields used throughout the other tools' query argument.
  • get_chapters -- List all top-level Combined Nomenclature chapters (2-digit codes). Bootstraps browsing the nomenclature top-down; drill into a chapter with get_subtree.
  • get_subtree -- Return the Combined Nomenclature sub-tree rooted at code (its children, and their children, …), each with a code and a text description. Use this to see whether a heading you're about to use (e.g. as query.product elsewhere) is actually a clean match, or bundles several distinct sub-products together.
  • validate_code -- Validate and describe one or more Combined Nomenclature codes. For a single code, returns the full hierarchy of description levels (levels), the resolved product_name, and has_subcodes. For a comma-separated list, returns {"results": [...]} with one entry per code (each either a success dict or an {"code", "error"} pair).
  • search_codes -- Keyword/code search over the Combined Nomenclature (or PRODCOM). Returns ranked {code, label, path} candidates. Prefer resolve_product_code for a one-call keyword-or-code helper; use this directly if you specifically want the raw ranked candidate list.
  • get_data_range -- Return the period coverage (data_min/data_max, 'YYYY-MM') actually cached for the given product code(s) -- use before picking period_start/period_end so you don't request an empty window.
  • get_overview -- Headline figures: total import/export quantities, values and weighted-average prices per period, the trade balance, and a top-partner breakdown. The best first call for any new product/reporter slice.
  • get_partner_detail -- Per-partner import/export breakdown. For each flow, the top-N trading partners ranked both by quantity and by value (so you can compare volume-based vs. value-based rankings), each with its own quantity, value and price time series, plus an optional 'Other' bucket.
  • get_reporter_detail -- Per-EU-member-state import/export breakdown -- the reporter-side counterpart of get_partner_detail. Top-N member states (by quantity and by value) with their quantity, value and price series. Aggregate reporters (EU, Euro area, groups) are excluded from the ranking.
  • get_map_data -- Choropleth-ready aggregates: per-period totals (quantity, value, price) for imports and exports, keyed by GISCO country code on both the reporter and partner sides.
  • get_top_entities -- Just the ordered list of top entities for a slice -- no time series. A lightweight helper for populating entity pickers or quickly checking who the top partners/reporters are without pulling full series.
  • get_production_series -- EU27 and per-country PRODCOM production series: EU quantity, EU production unit value, and the same two per reporting country (all DS-059358 reporters, not just EU-27, since production data carries no trade columns). Country-level figures are heavily confidentiality -suppressed; suppressed/absent values come back as null, not zero. Use query.prodcom_code to pin a specific PRODCOM mapping when a CN code maps to several.
  • get_product_compare -- Sub-product comparison: for a single parent CN code, expands into its children (or, for a multi-code request, compares the entered codes directly) and returns per-subcode quantity/value/price series for both flows -- so each sub-product plots as its own line instead of being aggregated away. A leaf code with no children returns leaf: true.
  • get_concentration -- Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) of trade concentration across partners or member states, per period (0 = perfectly spread, 10000 = one entity holds the whole market), plus the top-8-by-value share breakdown (rest bundled as 'Others'). Higher HHI = more dependent on a handful of counterparties.
  • get_concentration_compare -- Partner-concentration (HHI) compared across sub-products: one HHI line per sub-product rather than per flow, to see which sub-products drive a parent code's overall concentration.
  • get_concentration_map -- Cross-sectional HHI per country for one year -- the choropleth counterpart of get_concentration. 'partner' entity_level = for every EU member state, HHI of its trade across partners; 'reporter' = for every partner, HHI of its trade across EU member states (subject to the Rotterdam/Antwerp entry-point distortion).
  • get_specialisation -- Intra-EU revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) per member state -- a Balassa index benchmarked against the EU instead of the world. Runs -1 (under-specialised) to +1 (strongly specialised), value -based and intra-EU only. Treat with caution: intra-EU flows are distorted by the Rotterdam/Antwerp quasi-transit effect.
  • get_production_concentration -- How concentrated production of a product is across all DS-059358 reporting countries (PRODCOM; EU member states plus EFTA/candidate/other reporters -- not only the EU-27). HHI of PRODVAL across countries over time, plus each country's production share. Suppressed/absent country figures come back as null, not zero. Use query.prodcom_code to pin a specific PRODCOM mapping.
  • get_volatility_ -- Coefficient-of-variation (CV = stdev / mean) volatility per partner/reporter x product pair, over inactive-period-excluded history. Higher CV = the flow swings more relative to its typical level. Returns per-entity CV bars (with drill-down series) and, unless includeheatmap=false, an entity x sub-product CV heatmap.
  • get_pattern_shift -- Before/after trade-pattern shift around a split point (query.midpoint): for each entity, compares average quantity and price before vs. after, and returns scatter points (quantity-change % vs. price-change %) with quadrant labels -- top-right = demand-driven growth, top-left = supply constraint/monopoly risk, bottom-right = dumping/oversupply risk, bottom-left = market contraction. Suggested workflow: spot a shock date via get_supply_shocks / get_price_shocks first, then set it as query.midpoint here.
  • get_supply_shocks -- Detect abnormal collapses in trade volumes ("sudden volume changes"). Flags periods where a partner/product pair's volume drops well below its historical average (>2 sigma by default). Returns ranked shock events per flow, each with timeline phases (baseline, decline, disruption, recovery, …), magnitude, abnormality score and underlying series.
  • get_price_shocks -- Detect sudden price regime shifts ("rapid price changes"), accounting for each flow's usual volatility so naturally volatile flows aren't over-flagged. Returns ranked shock events per flow with timeline phases (price spike/drop, volatile trade, return to baseline, …), magnitude and series.
  • get_net_import_reliance -- Net Import Reliance (NIR) = (Imports - Exports) / Apparent consumption, annual, joining PRODCOM production with Comext trade. E.g. 40% means 40% of EU consumption is met by imports; negative means the EU is a net exporter. Returns the NIR % series, its supply/disposition components, sibling-category/per-code comparisons, the resolved PRODCOM codes and availability notes (CN-to-PRODCOM mapping is not always 1:1; see the self.notes / unavailability_type fields in the response). Use query.prodcom_code to pin a specific mapping.
  • get_trade_intensity -- Trade Intensity (TI) = (Imports + Exports) / (Imports + Production), annual. Near 1 = highly trade-exposed sector; near 0 = predominantly domestic. Used in the Commission's CEEAG methodology for carbon-leakage / State-aid eligibility. Returns the TI series, its components, sibling-category/per-code comparisons, resolved PRODCOM codes and availability notes.
  • get_export_propensity -- Export Propensity = Exports / Production, annual: the share of EU production that is exported. Not clamped -- values above 100% are legitimate (re-exports, stock drawdown, scope differences). Returns the export-propensity matrix, a sibling/per-code comparison, resolved PRODCOM codes and availability notes.
  • get_subcontracting -- EU27 sub-contracting intensity: the share of sold production that is toll (sub-contracted) manufacturing rather than own-account output. Returns intensity (%) across value/quantity, its component series, per-period data-quality status, resolved PRODCOM codes and availability notes. The own/sub split only exists from 2021 onward.
  • get_subcontracting_members -- Per-country sub-contracting intensity (PRODCOM): for each reporting country, the share of its sold production that is toll manufacturing -- which countries act as processing hubs vs. autonomous producers. Spans all DS-059358 reporters that report the own/sub split; others simply don't appear. Country cells are heavily confidentiality-suppressed (null, not zero, when absent).
  • resolve_product_code -- Resolve a free-text query or CN code(s) into validated product code(s) with descriptions -- the recommended first step before using a code as product in any other tool's query. Saves the search -> validate -> (optional) subtree round-trip: a bare keyword runs a search, a single code (or comma-separated list) is validated and described directly. Tip: Comext/CN nomenclature is frequently coarser than a colloquial product name (e.g. there is no code for "glass jars" alone -- only heading 7010, which bundles jars with bottles, flasks and closures). Check has_subcodes and, if useful, set include_children=true to see whether a finer sub-code is actually a better match before committing to one code for a whole report.
  • get_product_profile -- Report-section helper ("Scope & definitions"): the resolved product code + label, a one-sentence caveat when the code bundles several sub-products (has_subcodes), the data-coverage window actually cached for it, and whether it has a usable PRODCOM mapping (gating the autonomy/vulnerability section). Deliberately thin -- no full CN hierarchy breadcrumb or sibling enumeration. Returns {narrative_facts, chart_data, available, reason} -- see get_market_summary for the shape this convention follows across all of this bridge's report-section helpers.
  • get_market_summary -- Report-section helper ("General overview"): condensed, report-ready digest of how a market has evolved over the chosen window -- one call instead of separately fetching and cross-referencing get_overview + get_reporter_detail + get_concentration + get_net_import_reliance yourself. Set query.frequency = "year" for a multi-year evolution summary (recommended over the model's default of "quarter"). Every figure reflects query exactly as given -- the same product/reporter/partner_set/period slice a dashboard user would have selected. Nothing here substitutes a different reporter or partner_set (e.g. to contrast intra-EU against extra-EU trade): call this again with a different query.partnerset for that, the same way a dashboard user would switch the sidebar's selector. Returns {narrativefacts, chartdata, available, reason}. narrativefacts combines, for the flow selected by query.partnerset: - Headline trade: first/last/min/max/pct_change for export & import value, quantity and price, plus the trade-balance trend. - Partner concentration: first/last/pct_change of the value-based HHI for imports and exports. - Top partners and top EU reporters by value: each one's first/last/pct_change -- i.e. who is gaining or losing share. - Net import reliance: first/last/pct_change of the annual NIR % for query's own reporter/partner_set (only frequency is normalised to "year", since NIR is structurally annual and the upstream API always returns it that way regardless); omitted if the product has no PRODCOM mapping. chart_data carries the full-fidelity headline trade and top-partner/ top-reporter series for charting.
  • get_market_structure_summary -- Report-section helper ("Market structure"): combines, in priority order, the intra-EU specialisation snapshot (get_specialisation, already map-ready), partner-concentration detail (get_concentration, keeping the top-8-by-value share breakdown as chart_data alongside the condensed HHI trend) and, when a PRODCOM mapping exists for the product, EU production volumes (get_production_series). These three are independent data sources bundled only because they all describe "market structure" -- the specialisation RSCA is trade-based and has no relation to the PRODCOM production figures; treat them as separate findings, not a single connected story. most_specialised_reporters / least_specialised_reporters are pre-sorted by actual RSCA (highest/ lowest first respectively) -- use them as-is rather than re-deriving a ranking. query.prodcom_code is passed through untouched -- picking among ambiguous PRODCOM mappings is left to the caller, never guessed here. Returns {narrative_facts, chart_data, available, reason}.
  • get_volatility_summary -- Report-section helper ("Volatility & shocks"): the entities analysed are picked by get_volatility (ranks by trade volume, reports each one's CV) and by get_price_shocks/get_supply_shocks at default parameters (both already scoped to top-value partners via cumulative_share=0.8) -- never re-picked from the shocks themselves. Retries shock detection once with loosened thresholds before concluding "no shocks"; an empty result is itself a reportable finding, not a gap. When shocks are found, the top flagged entities and a derived midpoint feed get_pattern_shift as the section's priority chart; when none are found (even after the retry), the volatility bar chart is the fallback priority chart and stability is the finding. Returns {narrative_facts, chart_data, available, reason}.
  • get_autonomy_summary -- Report-section helper ("Autonomy & vulnerability"): net import reliance (get_net_import_reliance) is always the headline fact/chart. Trade intensity and export propensity (get_trade_intensity / get_export_propensity) are both computed, then a deterministic salience score -- distance from an unremarkable ~50% band, plus the magnitude of its own change -- decides which one leads the narrative; this choice is never left to the caller. trade_intensity_pct is returned fully unit-consistent (first/last/min/max all expressed as a percentage, matching export_propensity_pct). Sub-contracting is deliberately not included in this section at all -- it is an unrelated, tiny-base PRODCOM series that only muddied the narrative. Returns {narrative_facts, chart_data, available, reason}.
  • get_full_report -- Fetch every report section (scope, overview, market structure, volatility, autonomy) for one shared query in a single call, instead of calling get_product_profile / get_market_summary / get_market_structure_summary / get_volatility_summary / get_autonomy_summary separately yourself. Guarantees all five sections describe the exact same product/reporter/partner/period slice -- five separate calls have no such guarantee, since nothing stops query from being re-typed slightly differently across them, or one of the five simply being forgotten. query's own field defaults (reporter='European Union', partner_set='non-EU countries', period_start='2015-01', frequency='quarter', remove_outliers=true, …) are exactly the sensible defaults for a first-cut report; override any of them for a different slice -- e.g. a specific member state, a custom partner group, a narrower period. Returns {"query": {...}, "sections": {<name>: {narrative_facts, chart_data, links, available, reason}, ...}} for <name> in product_profile, market_summary, market_structure, volatility, autonomy. links maps each narrative_facts key to a ready-made https://tradedashboard.eu/... URL for that same fact -- never construct one of these yourself; use the one already provided.

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