# bea.international.trade_balance

Retrieve US international trade balance data from the BEA International Transactions Accounts (ITA) dataset. Covers balance on goods and services, current account balance, goods imports/exports, services imports/exports, and 800+ additional ITA indicators. Filter by country (China, Canada, Mexico, EU, etc.) or use AllCountries for world totals. Values in millions of USD. Annual or quarterly frequency. Official BEA government data.

Agent View of the PolicyLayer registry record for `bea.international.trade_balance`. HTML page: https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/bea.international.trade-balance

## Facts

- Tool: `bea.international.trade_balance`
- Server: Apibase (`apibase-mcp-client`) — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase.md
- Install: `npx -y apibase-mcp-client`
- Homepage: https://github.com/whiteknightonhorse/APIbase
- Risk category: Read (Low risk)
- Registry record: grade F, identity unverified
- Server auth posture: open
- Server rate-limited: no
- Parameters: 4
- Recommended policy verdict: Allowed

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `year` | string | no | Year(s) to retrieve. Single year (e.g. "2023"), comma-separated list ("2021,2022,2023"), "LAST5" for latest 5 years, "LAST10" for latest 10, or "X"/"ALL" for al |
| `frequency` | string | no | Data frequency: A=Annual (default), Q=Quarterly. |
| `indicator` | string | no | BEA ITA indicator code. Common values: "BalGdsServ" (balance on goods and services, default), "BalGds" (goods only), "BalServ" (services only), "BalCurrAcct" (c |
| `area_or_country` | string | no | Country or area filter. "AllCountries" (default) for world totals, or a specific country name such as "China", "Canada", "Mexico", "Germany", "Japan". Use "Area |

Parameters from the server's own tool schema.

## Example call (MCP tools/call, JSON-RPC 2.0)

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "bea.international.trade_balance",
    "arguments": {}
  }
}
```

## Why bea.international.trade_balance is rated Low

Tool retrieves historical economic data without modifying records, executing code, or affecting financial transactions.

From the tool's own definition: "Retrieve US international trade balance data from the BEA International Transactions Accounts dataset."

## Use case

AI agents call bea.international.trade_balance to retrieve information from Apibase without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.

## Recommended policy (PolicyLayer)

Verdict: **Allowed**. Enforced by the PolicyLayer MCP gateway (https://policylayer.com/mcp-gateway) before a call reaches Apibase:

```json
{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "bea.international.trade_balance": {}
  }
}
```

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## For agents

This record is a snapshot. Live verdicts and the full registry:

- Check every server in your MCP config at once: `npx -y policylayer stack`
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---

Source: the PolicyLayer MCP registry — one continuously verified record per MCP server. Full record: https://policylayer.com/registry?q=io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase · API: https://policylayer.com/registry/api · Policy library: https://policylayer.com/policies/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase