Understand the question.
Trade readiness looks at how a place can move goods and services into international markets. It includes trade activity, transport connections, logistics, and support for businesses.
Why it matters
A promising relationship needs a practical route to market. Shipping, delivery, information, and follow-up can determine whether a business can act on an opportunity.
Can your offer reach the buyer?
Imagine a buyer likes your product and asks for a sample. You still need to know how it will travel, what it will cost, and who will handle the border steps. Trade readiness connects interest with a workable route. It helps you ask practical questions before you promise a delivery date.
Begin with country trade and logistics context, then look closer at your product, route, and customer. Country Readiness compares broad conditions. Your business plan needs the details of a shipment or service. A port, airport, or road is useful only when it serves the route and timing you need.
Three steps you can take
- Use the customer guide to confirm a need and the supplier guide to check delivery capacity.
- Compare the same observation year and keep trade/GDP ratios separate from the size of the market.
- Ask a trade adviser about product rules, documentation, full costs, and payment terms.
Read the source: World Bank: Logistics Performance Index. This reference explains the source or research context; the inventory figures below come from the reviewed NDS package.
Know what you are looking at.
- Minimum evidence
- Comparable trade measures
- Country Readiness V1
- Trade intensity and logistics components
- Local editions
- Local export or logistics evidence required
How to use the evidence
Use comparable trade definitions and periods. National trade measures provide country context; they do not automatically describe a city or state.
Country Readiness V1 uses trade as a share of GDP for 2024 and the WDI logistics observation labeled 2022. Each is a separate 25% component of that four-measure score.
Local editions need local export, freight, airport, port, or similar evidence with a documented geographic link.
Available results and rankings
- Country transportation sections connect covered airport locations, port codes, and recorded partner-country links. Road, rail, and transfer questions help visitors plan the whole journey.
- The Country Data Lab and country-readiness rankings publish national trade and logistics evidence.
- The supplier and customer guides explain the business questions to ask before planning a mission.
Coverage and limits
- A larger trade/GDP ratio alone does not prove more demand for a specific business.
- Source airport and route references are useful infrastructure; lookup records are not airport-opportunity rankings.
Other framework pillars
Commercial Diplomacy Index™ · National Data System · Source and method guide · October 20, 2026