Structure and Trends in International Trade in Services

Structure and Trends in International Trade in Services

OECD report.

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In the OECD service exports in 2004 accounted for some 22.0% of total exports of goods and services and 17.9 % of current account credits. These proportions are very similar to those in 2003 (21.9% and 17.9% respectively). The total service exports of the member countries was 1.71 trillion USD in 2004 (approximately 76% of total World services exports) compared with 6.05 trillion USD for OECD goods exports.

OECD service imports in 2004 accounted for 20.2% of total goods and services imports and 16.5% of the current account debits. The total service imports were 1.62 trillion USD (approximately 73% of total World services imports) and OECD imports of goods were 6.41 trillion USD.

The relatively minor role for services in international trade is in contrast to the contribution of services in the domestic economies of member countries, where the proportion of total value-added contributed by services is around 70% and rising.

Why then are services more difficult to trade internationally? For many services a physical proximity between supplier and customer is essential, for example hotels, hairdressing and industrial cleaning. It is also one of the characteristics of those entities usually described as services that they cannot be traded separately from their production. Consequently many service producers find it necessary to establish a commercial presence in countries they wish to trade in, in order to be close to their customers. An OECD publication, Measuring Globalisation: The Role of Multinationals in OECD Economies, Volume II: Services addresses this area of foreign affiliates trade in services (for more information refer to www.oecd.org/std/trade-services). This kind of activity goes beyond the balance of payments concept of trade addressed in this publication."