Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services 2010

The revision and publication of the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services were undertaken by our seven organizations and managed through the mechanism of the inter-agency Task Force on Statistics of International Trade in Services. The Manual was published following its adoption, on 26 February 2010, by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its forty-first session, held in New York from 23 to 26 February 2010. The Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services 2010 (MSITS 2010) sets out an internationally agreed framework for the compilation and reporting of statistics of international trade in services in a broad sense, which addresses the needs, including those of international trade negotiations and agreements, for more detailed, more comparable and more comprehensive statistics on this type of trade in its various forms.

The recommendations presented, which are promoted by our seven organizations, will enable countries to progressively expand and structure the information they compile in an internationally comparable way. MSITS 2010 conforms with and explicitly relates to the System of National Accounts 2008 and the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual. The preparation of MSITS 2010 has benefited from strong cooperation among the international organizations, the advice of specialist consultants, the invaluable input of a large number of member countries' experts and the many comments received during the successive worldwide reviews, in 2006, 2008 and 2009, conducted under the auspices of the Task Force. It is intended for use by national and international organizations, and we commend it to countries for their progressive implementation, taking into account their national information needs, priorities and resources.

MSITS 2010 is available as a printed publication and also on the Internet.The annexes, including the correspondence tables, should be viewed as living documents which may be modified over time as the impacts of the new classifications become better understood.