The Longitudinal Firm Trade Transactions Database (LFTTD) links individual trade transactions to the U.S. firms that make them. That is, it links export transactions to the U.S. exporter and import transactions to the U.S. importer. The LFTTD contains the same firm identifier found in many other Census data products. This allows linkages between the LFTTD and other Census data products such as the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD), the Economic Censuses, and other surveys.

The export and import transactions in the LFTTD are the universe of trade transactions data collected by the Customs Bureau during the importation or exportation process, containing value, date, country of origin or destination, quantity, HS code, and other variables. For details, see example forms for importation (CBP 7501) and an example of the shipper’s export declaration.

LFTTD Restricted–Use Microdata

Sector	Economic – Transactions Data
Industry	Economy–wide
Frequency	Monthly
Sponsor	Census Bureau
Unit of Enumeration	Transaction
Availability	1992–2021
Observations	This is a transaction by firm level dataset. The number of observations varies by year.
Related Links	Foreign Trade Data - Exports Foreign Trade Data - Imports Example Forms for Importation (CBP 7501) Example Shipper’s Export Declaration Form
More Information	Bernard, A. B., Jensen, J.B., Schott, P.K., 2009. Importers, Exporters, and Multinationals: A Portrait of Firms in the U.S. that Trade Goods. In Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data, University of Chicago Press. Kamal, Fariha, and Wei Ouyang, 2020. Identifying U.S. Merchandise Traders: Integrating Customs Transactions with Business Administrative Data. CES Discussion Paper Series, CES-WP-20-28.

Page Last Revised - October 13, 2023

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