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Trade Leads API

The Trade Leads API provides contract opportunities for U.S. businesses selling their products and services overseas. These leads come from a variety of sources and we continue to expand the number of leads available.

We currently provide trade leads, procurement opportunities, and contract notifications from:

  • The State Department’s Business Information Database System (BIDS)
  • The United Kingdom
  • Canada

We will soon be including leads from FedBizOpps. All leads are consolidated into one endpoint.

Developers can use this API to keep businesses aware of the latest leads in particular industries or locations. They can also enhance the value of the leads by incorporating reports from ITA’s Market Research Library or Trade News & Articles APIs.

The output format for this API is JSON. Resource URL and Search Parameters can be found towards the bottom of this page.

Current Sources

State Department leads

The State Department’s Business Information Database System (BIDS) is a portal built to help U.S. businesses learn about significant international commercial opportunities.:

Return Values from BIDS

Field Description
type Trade lead source
id ID of the trade lead
source Source of the trade lead, typically an organization
specific_location Location of the opportunity
project_number Number for the opportunity
industry Industry category assigned to the opportunity
project_size Industry category assigned to the opportunity
description Description of the opportunity
tags Keywords of the opportunity
publish_date Date lead was posted
end_date Closing date for the lead
funding_source Funding source of the project
borrowing_entity Bank funding the project
procurement_organization Agency responsible for the contract
project_pocs Point of contact
comments comments about the project
submitting_officer Contract officer name
submitting_officer_contact Contract officer email
url URL that pertain to the bid
status Status of the lead (note this API only shows open leads)

Licence - State Department

State Department leads are subject to their open government license located at:

https://github.com/USStateDept/bids

Canadian leads

The Canadian Government provides procurement information for their government opportunities. Leads provided by the Canadian government have the following data model:

Return Values from Canada

Field Description
title Title of the opportunity
reference_number Reference number for the opportunity
contract_number Contract Number for the opportunity
publish_date Date lead was posted
end_date Closing date for the lead
publish_date_amended Date of latest change to the original lead
status Status of the lead (note this API only shows open leads)
description Description of the opportunity
industry Industry category assigned to the opportunity
specific_location The locations of the work in the contract
notice_type Type of contract
trade_agreement Relevant trade agreement for the contract
bid_type The criteria for the contract
competitive_procurement_strategy Bidding criteria for respondents
non_competitive_procurement_strategy States whether it is a competitive procurement
procurement_organization Agency responsible for the contract
implementing_entity Agency responsible for the implementation
contact Point of contact
urls URLs that pertain to the bid
country CA

Licence - Canada

Canadian leads are subject to Canada’s license located at:

http://data.gc.ca/eng/open-government-licence-canada

UK Government leads

The UK Government provides procurement information for their government opportunities. Leads provided by the UK government have the following data model:

Return Values from the UK

Field Description
id ID of the trade lead
reference_number Reference number for the opportunity
publish_date Date lead was posted
min_contract_value Minimum value of the lead (in pounds)
max_contract_value Maximum value of the lead (in pounds)
status Status of the lead (note this API only shows open leads)
url URL that pertain to the bid
procurement_organization Agency responsible for the contract
contact Point of contact
title Title of the opportunity
description Description of the opportunity
notice_type Type of contract
industry Industry category assigned to the opportunity
specific_location Location of the opportunity
country GB

Licence - UK

UK leads are subject to their open government license located at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/

Resource URL

http://api.trade.gov/trade_leads/search

Search Parameters for all leads

keyword

Searches for a match within the title and description fields.

http://api.trade.gov/trade_leads/search?q={term}
Example:
http://api.trade.gov/trade_leads/search?q=electrical

industries

Returns industry that the lead relates to. Note: This method allows you to search for multiple industries (plural) but will only return one industry (singular) per lead. Also, this method will soon be updated to limit the search to controlled industry names.

http://api.trade.gov/trade_leads/search?industries={term}
Example:
http://api.trade.gov/trade_leads/search?industries=agribusiness

countries

Returns location of lead based on ISO alpha-2 country codes. Note: This method allows you to search for multiple countries (plural) but will only return one country (singular) per lead. 

http://api.trade.gov/trade_leads/search?countries={country code}
Example:
http://api.trade.gov/trade_leads/search?countries=MX,CA,GB

size + offset

The size parameter allows you to configure the maximum amount of hits to be returned. The offset parameter defines the offset from the first result you want to fetch.

Example:
http://api.trade.gov/trade_leads/search?country=BR&size=1&offset=1