# oecd.economy.trade

Retrieve Balance of Payments (BoP) data for any OECD member country. Returns current account balance, goods trade balance, services trade balance, and financial account indicators in USD millions. Based on IMF BPM6 standards and reported to the OECD. Covers 38 OECD countries at quarterly and annual frequency with typical lags of 3–6 months. Useful for macroeconomic analysis, currency risk assessment, and understanding a country's external position with the rest of the world. Current account surplus = country exports more than it imports; deficit = imports exceed exports. Source: OECD SDMX API, CC BY 4.0, no auth required, unlimited.

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

## Facts

- Tool: `oecd.economy.trade`
- 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 (1 required)
- Recommended policy verdict: Allowed

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `country` | string | yes | ISO 3-letter OECD country code (e.g. USA, GBR, DEU, FRA, JPN, CAN, AUS, KOR, ITA, ESP). See OECD reference area codes for the full list of 38 member countries. |
| `end_period` | string | no | End period for Balance of Payments data (e.g. "2023"). Defaults to latest available. |
| `max_series` | integer | no | Maximum number of time series to return (1–100, default 20). Each series is a unique combination of dimensions such as sector, measure, or adjustment type. |
| `start_period` | string | no | Start period for Balance of Payments data (e.g. "2018" for annual, "2023-Q1" for quarterly). Defaults to 5 years prior. |

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": "oecd.economy.trade",
    "arguments": {
      "country": "<country>"
    }
  }
}
```

## Why oecd.economy.trade is rated Low

Tool retrieves and queries published OECD economic data with no side effects or modifications.

From the tool's own definition: "Retrieve Balance of Payments data, returns current account balance, goods trade balance"

## Use case

AI agents call oecd.economy.trade 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": {
    "oecd.economy.trade": {}
  }
}
```

## Other tools on Apibase (1383)

- `infra.cloudflare.dns_delete` — Destructive — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/infra.cloudflare.dns-delete.md
- `infra.cloudflare.purge_cache` — Destructive — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/infra.cloudflare.purge-cache.md
- `polymarket.trading.cancel_order` — Destructive — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/polymarket.trading.cancel-order.md
- `ai.image.generate` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/ai.image.generate.md
- `aipush.market.report` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/aipush.market.report.md
- `audio.transcribe.submit` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/audio.transcribe.submit.md
- `dev.code.execute` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/dev.code.execute.md
- `device.registry.command` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/device.registry.command.md
- `document.convert.from_pdf` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/document.convert.from-pdf.md
- `document.convert.to_pdf` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/document.convert.to-pdf.md
- `document.convert.web_to_pdf` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/document.convert.web-to-pdf.md
- `hf_inference.nlp.translate` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/hf-inference.nlp.translate.md
- `infra.browser.create_session` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/infra.browser.create-session.md
- `phone.telnyx.sms_world` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/phone.telnyx.sms-world.md
- `phone.twilio.sms` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/phone.twilio.sms.md
- `platform.batch.call` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/platform.batch.call.md
- `scb.tables.query` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/scb.tables.query.md
- `socrata.datasets.query` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/socrata.datasets.query.md
- `web.screenshot.capture` — Execute — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/web.screenshot.capture.md
- `domain.namesilo.register` — Financial — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/domain.namesilo.register.md
- `phone.telnyx.sms_premium` — Financial — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/phone.telnyx.sms-premium.md
- `polymarket.trading.place_order` — Financial — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/polymarket.trading.place-order.md
- `abr.business.abn_lookup` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/abr.business.abn-lookup.md
- `abr.business.acn_lookup` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/abr.business.acn-lookup.md
- `abr.business.name_search` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/abr.business.name-search.md
- `abs.demographics.population` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/abs.demographics.population.md
- `abs.economy.cpi` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/abs.economy.cpi.md
- `abs.economy.gdp` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/abs.economy.gdp.md
- `abs.economy.labour_force` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/abs.economy.labour-force.md
- `abs.economy.trade` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/abs.economy.trade.md
- …and 1353 more: https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase.md

## 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`
- Vet a server before you add it: install the mcp-precheck skill — `npx skills add https://policylayer.com` (skill text: https://policylayer.com/skill.md)
- Query the registry over MCP: endpoint `https://api.policylayer.com/mcp` — tools `check_mcp_server`, `check_mcp_stack`, `check_tool`, `search_registry`, `get_change_events`

---

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