US Foreign Trade

Live

US Census Bureau imports & exports time series — by HS commodity, NAICS, US port, US state, and trading-partner country, with built-in CTY_CODE↔ISO and HS chapter lookups.

What is US Foreign Trade?

U.S. Census Bureau Foreign Trade Division international trade time series — eight endpoints span the full feed: hs / porths / statehs / naics × imports / exports. Filter by HS-2/HS-4/HS-6/HS-10 chapters, NAICS-4/NAICS-6, country (Census Schedule C/D codes), district, port, or US state, and slice by month / year / arbitrary date range (`time=2024-01`, `time=2024`, `time=from 2024-01 to 2024-12`). The connector ships a built-in CTY_CODE↔ISO mapping table for the top 30 US trading partners (Canada 1220, Mexico 2010, China 5700, Japan 5880, Germany 4280, UK 4120, Saudi Arabia 5170, …) plus USMCA / OECD / NATO / APEC trade-group rollups, and a built-in HS chapter index covering petroleum (27 — 2709 crude, 2710 refined, 2711 LNG/LPG, 2716 electrical energy), petrochem (28 / 29 / 39), iron and steel (72 / 73 — line pipe and OCTG), machinery (84 / 85), and ores (26). getTradeBalance is a convenience that fetches both directions and returns {exportsValue, importsValue, balance}. Asymmetric value/commodity columns: exports use ALL_VAL_MO + E_COMMODITY; imports use GEN_VAL_MO + I_COMMODITY — the search methods dispatch on direction so callers don't have to. Country codes are Census Schedule C (imports) / Schedule D (exports), NOT ISO. Optional CENSUS_API_KEY platform env var raises the rate limit from 500 calls/day per IP. Toggle on and use — no setup needed.

Available Tools

searchExports
US exports by HS or NAICS code, country, month. Auto-routes to /exports/hs vs /exports/naics. Default COMM_LVL=HS4.
searchImports
US imports by HS or NAICS code, country, month. Auto-routes to /imports/hs vs /imports/naics. Default COMM_LVL=HS4.
searchTradeByPort
HS commodity × US port × country (porths). Filter by 4-digit port code (5301=Houston, 4601=NY/NJ).
searchTradeByState
HS commodity × US state × country (statehs). Filter by 2-letter state postal (TX, CA, LA).
getTradeBalance
Fetches both directions in parallel, returns {exportsValue, importsValue, balance} for an HS code + time slice.
getCountryCodes
Built-in CTY_CODE↔ISO lookup. Top 30 US trading partners + USMCA / OECD / NATO / APEC rollups. No upstream call.
lookupHsCode
Built-in HS chapter index for petroleum (27), petrochem (28/29/39), iron/steel (72/73), machinery (84/85), ores (26).
getServiceInfo
Endpoints, common variables, country-code system, asymmetric value-field warning, and time-format options.

Requirements

Toggle on
Toggle on and use — no setup needed.

Quick Setup Guide

Follow these steps to connect your AI agents to this connector

Open /mcp and enable US Foreign Trade with the toggle — no credentials needed.

Call searchImports with hsCode: '2709' (crude petroleum) and time: '2024-01' to surface the top US suppliers and dollar values for the month. getTradeBalance with hsCode: '2710' and countryCode: '2010' (Mexico) returns net trade for the year. searchTradeByState with state: 'TX' and hsCode: '2711' surfaces LNG exports out of Texas.

Register at https://api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html for a free API key and set CENSUS_API_KEY in your Vercel environment to raise the rate limit from 500 calls/day per IP.

Connect to Your AI Assistant

Choose your AI assistant below for specific setup instructions

Follow these steps to connect US Foreign Trade to Claude:

Step 1: Open Claude Settings

Launch Claude → Click the profile button (bottom left) → Navigate to Settings

Step 2: Access Connectors

Scroll down to the Connectors tab → Navigate to the bottom → Click “Add Custom Connector”

Step 3: Name Your Connector

Enter any name you'd like for this connector

Step 4: Get the Connector URL

Step 5: Add the Connector

Paste the URL in the “Remote MCP Server URL” text box → Click Add

Step 6: Start Using

Your connector is now ready to use in Claude

Follow these steps to connect US Foreign Trade to ChatGPT:

Step 1: Enable Developer Mode

Go to Settings → Connectors → Advanced → Enable Developer mode

Step 2: Create New Connector

Go back to Connectors page → Click “Create” (top right)

Step 3: Name Your Connector

Enter any name you'd like for this connector (descriptions are optional)

Step 4: Get the Connector URL

Step 5: Add the URL

Paste the URL in the “MCP Server URL” text box

Step 6: Set Authentication

Click the authentication dropdown → Select “No authentication” (PatchOps handles authentication internally)

Step 7: Create the Connector

Click “I understand and want to continue” checkbox → Press Create

Step 8: Using the Connector

Start a new chat → Click the + button (left of text box) → Open dropdown → Hover over three dots labeled “More” → Select your connector

Instructions for connecting US Foreign Trade to GitHub Copilot:

Coming Soon

Detailed setup instructions for GitHub Copilot will be added here.

For other MCP-compatible platforms:

Step 1: Get the Connector URL

Step 2: Add to Configuration

Add this configuration to your MCP settings file. Replace the URL with your specific connector URL from the /mcp page:

"US Foreign Trade-MCP": {
  "url": "https://patchops.ai/api/mcp/...",
  "type": "http"
}

Example Configuration

Here’s an example using PatchOps MCP:

"PatchOps-MCP": {
  "url": "https://patchops.ai/api/mcp/...",
  "type": "http"
}