Trade In Services Statistics

Trade in services statistics in Global Commerce Policy

In this regard, a definition of this issue is as follows: what strikes analysts of international trade immediately is that statistics for trade in services are much less detailed than those for merchandise trade. The principal cause of this is that services cannot be counted and inspected at the border as is the case for trade in goods. Historically few saw a necessity to develop similarly detailed classifications for trade in services because this trade was considered less important. The entries on trade policy are here. Indeed, one can see here one of the results of adhering to mercantilism which extols the export of manufactures. The entries on trade policy are here. Also, since many services have been traded for only a relatively short time, it was for a long time sufficient to report flows at high levels of aggregation. Today, statistics for trade in services are worked out on the basis of foreign exchange transactions or surveys of firms, often in combination, to achieve greater accuracy. Many countries now report their statistics for trade in services according to the fourth edition of the IMF Balance of Payments Manual. This classifies services transactions into four categories: (a) shipment: freight and insurance services provided as part of the transportation of goods, (b) other transportation services: passenger services provided by transport operators and measured by way of ticket sales for international journeys and port services, (c) travel: goods and services acquired by overseas travellers, and (d) other services: insurance, professional, telecommunications, construction, mining, computing, entertainment and others. The last category in fact includes the services showing the fastest trade growth. The fifth edition of the IMF Manual, published in 1993, recognizes this. The entries on trade policy are here. It offers a greater disaggregation of services, though the classifications remain quite broad. Many national statistical services now publish figures according to the classification contained in the fifth edition or in even greater detail, but in other cases figures based on the four earlier classifications are all that is available. The IMF classification is being developed further in the OECD-EUROSTAT classification for trade in services. The main international effort is that of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Services Statistics. The entries on trade policy are here. It meets under United Nations auspices, is chaired by the OECD and comprises also representatives of EUROSTAT (the European Community statistical office), the IMF, UNCTAD, the IBRD (World Bank) and WTO. This task force has a broad mandate to improve services statistics, and it is giving priority to the statistical needs of the GATS. Work is under way in many countries to improve the statistical coverage of trade in services. The entries on trade policy are here. It will, however, be some time before detailed statistics for all of the more important services traders will be available. The entries on trade policy are here. In the meantime, it is worth recalling that there is also a view that the division of traded products into goods and services is not as important as it used to be in terms of what is actually occurring in the economy. See also balance of payments.[1]

Trade in services statisticsin the wold Encyclopedia

For an introductory overview on international trade policy, see this entry.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Dictionary of Trade Policy, “Trade in services statistics” entry (OAS)

See Also