Q: What is the difference between a reporter and a partner?

A: A “reporter” is the country (or area) that reports the trade data to us. A “partner” is the country or area from/to which the commodity was imported or exported, as declared by the reporting country. When UN Comtrade users download the data, you will find separate reporter and partner codes columns.

The 2nd partner is the country of consignment. Please see Second Partner Country.

As an example, see the illustration below for Germany (reporter) imports:

• Partner 1 World, Partner 2 UK that means all imports to Germany originating from anywhere in the world and dispatched from the UK
• Partner 1 UK, Partner 2 World that means all imports to Germany originating from the UK and dispatched from anywhere in the world
• Partner 1 UK, Partner 2 UK that means all imports to Germany originating from the UK and dispatched from the UK

Please visit the following link for reporter and partner references: List of References & Parameter Codes