EU Trade Explorer

Descriptive and analytical statistics about EU trade and industrial production

View on tradedashboard.eu

Documentation

EU Trade Explorer -- MCP bridge

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

Typical workflow: First, 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. Second, you have two options. Either the short path: call build_full_report. This gives you a rundown of the most important stats available through the api. If you want something quick and simple, you can already stop there, analyse that data, and write your report. Or the longer path: there are close to twenty eight functions you can call iteratively to build your report, depending on your angle. You should rather 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.

All the mcp tools take the same query object (product, reporter, partner_set, period_start, period_end, frequency, …) 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. This can be useful if you just want the main trends, otherwise, especially if you want to identify shocks and outlandish patterns, getting the full series is useful too. You typically do not need to plot data yourself, since that's what the website is there for. Instead, the better practice is to refer to the relevant menu item/tab of the website. About this last point: there is no get_url-style tool, because the dashboard's views don't map 1:1 onto this bridge's tools. A single dashboard tab is often rendered from several tool calls (e.g. the "concentration" tab shows get_concentration for both entity_level='partner' and 'reporter' side by side; "production-volumes" combines get_production_series and get_production_concentration), so a link belongs to a view (menu+tab), not to one tool response.

Here is the shape of the website:

| menu | menu name | tab | tab name | |-----------------|----------------------|---------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 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 (this section is only meaningful for a multi-code product, or for drilling into subproducts@ | compare | Quantities by product | | | | 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 |

Additional explanations (methodological notes shown on the corresponding dashboard tab, reproduced here so figures can be interpreted/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 x 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 generally (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. -- 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 Antwerpen 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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