Reading data from ESTAT's Easy Comext trade database

[jdb...@gmail.com]

Dear all,

I am trying to download trade data from ESTAT's Easy Comext database (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/newxtweb/mainxtnet.do) using pandaSDMX.

I have run into two problems that I would very much appreciate your help with.
1) I have not been able to find the Data Structure Definitions (DSD)/ the codelists for the "Easy Comext" database. I thought that "DS-045339" could be the code for one of the series but I could not get the query to work. Do you know whether they exist and/or how to find them?

2) I am not sure how to figure out what parameters I should use in the query other than the name of the series. Is there a way to figure out which parameters I have to use for a given data series?

To make sure I am using the terminology correctly, I will illustrate my two problems with the code below:
### code - START
# Download unemployment data for Ireland and Spain since 2007 from Eurostat
from pandasdmx import Request
estat = Request('ESTAT')
resp = estat.data('une_rt_a', key={'GEO': 'ES+IE'}, params={'startPeriod': '2007'})
data = resp.write(s for s in resp.data.series if s.key.AGE == 'TOTAL')
### code - END

Problem 1) relates to the problem that I do not know what the equivalent for 'une_rt_a' is in the "Easy Comext" data. Problem 2) relates to the fact that I do not know where I can get the information for the other parameters used in the query, i.e. key={'GEO': 'ES+IE'}, params={'startPeriod': '2007'}.

I apologies for the generality of the questions and would be grateful about any help (also about suggested sources on the web that could help with my understanding).

Many thanks in advance.

Best,
Jan