TERRA (imporT ExpoRt netwoRk Analysis) is a tool built to enable exploratory analysis of open data from Eurostat sources on international trade through dynamic and interactive tools. The system enables exploration of phenomena related to the dynamics of global value chains (GVCs). The advantage of this new economic organization is well-known: firms gain economic benefits through foreign direct investment or by outsourcing production, relocating some production stages to countries where high specialization or an advantageous labor market create more opportunities. However, the GVC structure has proven to be highly susceptible to shock transmissions and supply chain disruptions associated with geo-political events or epidemiological crises as in the case of Covid-19. In this context, through Graph Analysis, TERRA offers researchers and policy makers the opportunity to explore the dynamics of trade flows, with the possibility of focus on specific products and transport modes, tracing the critical phases of recent years. It also makes it possible to simulate flow disruptions or closures of specific logistics hubs or transport routes, giving a way to outline possible scenarios of modification or relocation of global chains capable of mitigating the risk of shock transmission (changes in bilateral relations between countries, logistics or transport investments, increased foreign investment, etc.).
TERRA presents graphic sections that illustrate the evolution of trade flows not only in trade volumes, but also in terms of the composition of the basket of traded goods.
The dashboard can be accessed at the following link: https://www.terra.istat.it
European Big Data Hackathon
The European Big Data Hackathon is an international competition (hackathon) organized by Eurostat as part of the New Techniques and Technologies for Official Statistics (NTTS) conference. Teams of experts (data scientists, researchers, methodologists, domain experts, etc.) from different European statistical institutes participate in the competition with the aim of implementing innovative products that integrate traditional data sources and Big Data sources.
As part of the competition, teams must produce a product that responds to a policy question related to a pressing issue in the European context (e.g., COVID-19) and/or a statistical problem (integration of Big Data sources, use of new data collection tools, increasing the quality of outputs of certain production processes, etc.).
The team that represented Istat (Team-Istat) made the first prototype of TERRA during the competition held virtually on February 26 – March 4, 2021. Team-Istat achieved first place in the competition. More details about the hackathon can be found on European website
Data sources used and methodology
TERRA processes monthly about one billion records on foreign trade in goods produced by the member countries according to harmonized methodologies publicly available on Eurostat’s COMEXT database. The information base provides official estimates of trade flows in monetary value and physical quantities at the highest granularity in temporal resolution (monthly frequency), characteristics of traded product, trading partner countries, mode of transport.
COMEXT’s bulk download feature allows users to massively download data in .dat format so that they can be easily imported for further analysis in tools such as, for example, R, SAS, or Python. The datasets contain metadata (classifications, data availability information.) and methodological notes.
COMEXT data are organized in different folders, TERRA is fed from the folders:
- PRODUCTS: containing data on EU countries’ monthly and annual trade interchange with each partner country in value (euro) and quantity (kg and any additional units) for products classified according to Combined Nomenclature, SITC, CPA (2002, 2008 and 2.1).
- TRANSPORT_NSTR: containing data on monthly trade interchange of EU countries with non-EU partner countries in value (euro) and quantity (kg) by means of transport. Products are detailed according to NSTR classification.
Monthly frequency data and annual data are made available in each folder of the bulk download section, with the same characteristics in terms of variables and classifications.
The main functionalities implemented in TERRA allow for the analysis of the impact of shocks in the means of transportation and the effects of disruptions in cross-country trade relations for specific products with social network analysis techniques, implemented in Python, offering a set of indicators proper to graph analysis.
The data analysis features offered by TERRA are the following:
- Interactive map: This section provides a map showing for each country the total population, some macroeconomic indicators, major imported and exported products, and major trading partner countries. In addition, a time-lapse feature is provided to depict monthly trend changes in international trade for the past three years.
- Graph EU – Extra EU: This section displays graphs representing international trade by product (NSTR classification, see Annex Classifications) and mode of transport from COMEXT source, along with relevant global and local measures detailing the structure of trade relations between EU and Extra-EU countries. The panel is interactive and provides the ability to apply various filters and see how the graph structure and measures change accordingly. In addition, an animation is provided showing the evolution of the international trade graph over time.
- Graph EU – World: This section displays graphs representing international trade by product (CPA 2.1 classification, see Annex Classifications) from COMEXT source, along with relevant global and local measures detailing the structure of trade relations recorded by EU countries to/from each trading partner country. The panel is interactive and provides the ability to apply various filters and see how the chart structure and measures change accordingly. In addition, an animation is provided showing the evolution of the international trade graph over time.
- Time Series: A visualization tool for COMEXT monthly foreign trade data series. This section allows for easy and understandable reading despite the volume of underlying data. Useful as an outreach tool. Series are provided in value and quantity and download is available in various formats.
- Basket of traded products: This section provides, for each EU Member State, monthly time series of trend changes in the composition of the basket of exported and imported goods, classified according to the divisions of the CPA 2.1 classification.
