CONFIGURACIONES CONVENCIONALES DE LOS CIRCUITOS

The MSITS recommends that countries compile services trade data by partner country for various services. Although fewer than 30 countries (mainly developed countries) were identified as collectors of services trade data by trading partner as of mid-2006,16 _{at least 10}

additional countries reported partner country data as part of their EBOPS data made available to UNSD a year later, as of August 2007.17 _{The manual recommended that}

countries compile data by trading partners at least for services trade as a whole and for the 11 main BOP categories of services classified in BPM5. Where possible, compilation of trading partner data is sought at a more detailed level in accordance with EBOPS subcategories, starting with principal trading partners and with the services most economically important to the compiling country.

Limited partner country data currently are published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Eurostat, and, most recently, UNSD (box 8.1 near the end of this chapter). Until 2007, the OECD database that contained partner country data reported data only for total services, transportation, travel, the broad category of other

18 _{This broad category of services includes communication; construction; insurance; financial; computer}

and information; royalties and licence fees; other business services; and personal, cultural, and recreational services.

19

OECD, Statistics Directorate, “OECD Plan on Expansion of Trade in Services by Partner Country Statistics,” September 19, 2007.

20

Regulation (EC) No. 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 January 2005 on Community Statistics Concerning Balance of Payments, International Trade in Services and Foreign Direct Investment, OJ No. L 35 (February 8, 2005), 23.

21 _{UNSD, “UNSD Trade in Services Statistics,” September 18–19, 2007. Since year-end 2006, UNSD has}

requested that countries provide statistics on international trade in services so that UNSD could augment the UN ServiceTrade database with annual data from 2000 through 2005.

commercial services,18 _{and government services, as reported by some OECD members, the}

Russian Federation, and Hong Kong, China (table 8.2).19 _{The number of trading partners for}

which such data were reported by OECD members varies widely from country to country, from zero to more than 60 partners. In the EU, a regulation adopted in 2005 requires, among other things, that member states collect and provide to Eurostat bilateral data on international trade in services and certain foreign direct investment (FDI) data.20 _{Subsequently, Eurostat}

created a database entitled New Cronos to contain bilateral data beginning in 2002 on total trade in services for extra-EU trading partners. A data exchange agreement between the OECD and Eurostat has assisted OECD in estimating total world services trade flows by region and broad categories of services exports for the world and by region, beginning with data for 2003. The UNSD began to collect bilateral data on services trade for a few countries not covered in OECD or Eurostat databases. In recent years, UNSD has overlapped country coverage with OECD and Eurostat by uploading data obtained from Eurostat and the Web sites of certain OECD countries, including the United States, while also requesting data from national statistical offices in a wide range of countries.21

TABLE 8.2 Categories of services trade data by partner country as reported by OECD member countries in balance of payments data Beginning in 2002:a • Total services • Travel services • Transport services • Other commercial services • Government services Beginning in 2007:b • Total services • Travel services • Transport services • Communication services • Financial services

• Computer and information services • Royalties and license fees

• Other business services

• Personal, cultural, and recreational services • Government services, not included elsewhere • Other services

Sources: OECD Statistics Directorate, “OECD Plan on Expansion of Trade in Services by Partner Country Statistics,” September 19, 2007, and Wistrom, “MSITS Implementation Update,” September 13, 2006, 3. a

By 2006, such data were collected for 56 trading partners by 28 countries. b

Of the 30 OECD members, only Switzerland and Turkey could not provide data on all 11 principal categories of services trade.

22

Van Leeuwen and Lejour, “Bilateral Services Trade Data and the GTAP Database,” July 17, 2006, 4, 6–7.

23 _{Cave, “The Revision of the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services,”}

September 19, 2007, 31. 24

WTO, CTS, “A Review of Statistics on Trade Flow in Services,” July 11, 2006, 19. 25

WTO, Economic Research and Statistics Division, “Measuring Trade in Services,” March 2006, 32. 26

WTO, CTS, “A Review of Statistics on Trade Flow in Services,” July 11, 2006, 23–24 and Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Australian Outward Foreign Affiliates Trade, 2002–03,” October 26, 2004. Australia’s experimental survey of outward foreign affiliates trade identified finance and insurance services as the principal services sold in the 2002–03 fiscal year by affiliates established abroad by Australian resident companies. Upon publication of the results of the first survey in 2004, the Australian Bureau of Statistics stated its intention to conduct the survey every four years.

8-6

Historically, existing partner country data on services trade have been problematic, which is also evidenced—although to a lesser extent—in goods trade data. A principal difficulty is that importing and exporting countries may not report the same value for a given service transaction (mirror data). For example, France reported services imports from Finland totaling $220 million in 2001, while Finland reported services exports to France amounting to $125 million. A regression analysis of services data of OECD member countries for 2001 indicated that the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom reported lower exports than their trading partners reported imports, while the reverse was the case for seven other OECD countries. On the import side, 10 OECD countries, including the United States, appeared to report significantly higher imports than their trading partners reported exports. Trade data experts point to differences in data collection methods such as surveys, reporting of bank transactions, estimates, and enterprise declarations among various complex factors that contribute to such data discrepancies.22 _{Efforts to recognize and eventually minimize}

differences in mirror data are ongoing.