Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services

Foundations of the Manual: general introduction and overview 
A. Introduction 
1.1. The 
Manual on Statistics of International Trade 
in Services represents an important advance in providing 
a clearer, more detailed and more comprehensive system 
for the measurement of such trade. The Manual has been 
prepared to address the needs of a variety of producers 
and users of statistics on international trade in services. 
While it is primarily a guide for statistical compilers, it 
is also a useful tool for Governments and international 
organizations that use statistical information in 
connection with international negotiations on trade in 
services. Furthermore, it can aid businesses and others 
that need to assess developments in international 
services markets.  
1.2.  A particular impetus for the preparation of a 
separate manual on statistics of international trade in 
services has arisen from the recent tendency for trade 
agreements to cover services as well as goods, and the 
need for statistics both to guide the negotiations and to 
support implementation of these agreements.  The most 
well known and wide-reaching agreement involving 
services is the General Agreement on Trade in Services 
(GATS), which became effective in 1995.  Its specific 
requirements are discussed in the present Manual, and 
these requirements have informed several of the 
Manual’s recommendations for extensions to existing 
statistical frameworks.  A new round of multilateral 
negotiations, known as GATS 2000, was under way as 
the  Manual went to press, and it is clear that the 
existence of a more fully articulated statistical 
framework for services should help to support these 
negotiations and any agreement that is reached. 
 
Statistics are necessary for analysing the increasingly 
important phenomenon of globalization,  which is a 
concept that usually entails the internationalization of 
both production and sales, as well as for monitoring the 
performance of service industries. This need for 
statistics has fuelled the demand for development of a 
more comprehensive and better integrated approach to 
statistical issues pertaining to trade in services. 
1.3. 
To meet these diverse needs, in recognition of the 
role of both affiliated enterprises and individuals 
locating abroad for the delivery of services to foreign 
customers, and in light of the increasing tendency for 
trade agreements to cover such methods of supply, the 
term international trade in services is construed broadly 
in the Manual.  It covers trade in services in the 
conventional sense of transactions between residents and 
non-residents. It extends the meaning of trade in services 
to cover services delivered through locally established 
enterprises. In the Manual, these latter transactions are 
designated as foreign affiliates trade in services (FATS). 
Also discussed in the context of trade in services are 
certain categories of service related employment of 
individuals non-permanently located abroad to the extent 
that they are covered by trade agreements.  Although it 
extends the concept of trade in services, it does not 
extend the concept of services, and it conforms almost 
entirely to existing international statistical standards. 
Discussion of the usage of the terms services and 
international trade in services in this Manual  is 
provided in boxes 1 and 2, respectively. 
1.4.  This construction of these terms signals the 
approach of the Manual, for while it features some 
important steps forward in the field of measurement of 
international trade in services, it does so by building on, 
rather than suggesting modifications to, internationally 
agreed standards for compilation.  First and foremost 
among these standards is the fifth edition of the 
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Balance of