BEA's international services statistics can be accessed through BEA's Interactive Data Application. These statistics cover both U.S. international trade in services and services supplied by majority-owned U.S. and foreign affiliates of MNEs. These two measures of international services are combined in table 1.1 to present total international services supplied to foreign persons by U.S.-based firms to U.S. persons by foreign-based firms.
BEA's remaining international services tables are organized into three sections: (1) U.S. trade in services, (2) services supplied through affiliates, and (3) services trade by enterprise characteristics (STEC).
U.S. trade in services
These statistics cover U.S. exports and imports of services—that is, services traded between U.S. residents and nonresidents—that are included in the broader set of U.S. International Transactions Accounts (ITAs) released by BEA. These statistics feature a standard presentation and supplementary statistics on trade in information and communications technology (ICT) and digitally deliverable services. They are released annually in July.
- BEA's standard presentation of trade in services includes breakdowns by service type and by trading partner or affiliation (tables 2.1–2.4).
- BEA also publishes an alternative aggregation of trade in ICT and digitally deliverable services (tables 3.1–3.3). ICT services refers to services that facilitate information processing and communication. Digitally deliverable services (previously called potentially ICT-enabled services) includes service types that can predominantly be delivered remotely over ICT networks, without identifying the services that are delivered over ICT networks.
Services supplied through affiliates
These statistics cover services supplied by MNEs through the channel of direct investment. They include services supplied by majority-owned foreign affiliates of U.S. MNEs to foreign residents, both in the host country and in other foreign markets (tables 4.1–4.4) and services supplied by majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign MNEs to U.S. residents (tables 5.1–5.4). Services supplied through affiliates statistics are released annually. These statistics are consistent with services supplied statistics published in BEA's statistics on the activities of multinational enterprises (“AMNE statistics”), except the AMNE statistics primarily focus on services supplied to all customers, regardless of the residency of the customer.
Services trade by enterprise characteristics
STEC statistics provide insight on the industry, firm ownership type, and employment size class of U.S. firms that trade services (tables 6.1–6.4). STEC statistics are published annually at the same time as BEA's standard presentation of trade in services statistics in July. STEC statistics are limited to a subset of “selected” international services trade categories collected on BEA surveys that cover most trade between businesses and are prepared by linking BEA's trade in services data to BEA's extensive data on the finances and operations of MNEs. 1 More information on BEA's STEC statistics is available in the article “A Profile of U.S. Services Traders, 2006–2022” and in the FAQ “What information does the Bureau of Economic Analysis publish on services trade by enterprise characteristics (STEC)?” on BEA's website.
International services statistics can also be accessed through BEA's Data Application Programming Interface within the “IntlServTrade” (tables 1.1–3.3) and “IntlServSTA” (tables 4.1–5.4) data sets. For more resources, such as links to definitions and surveys, see the international services product page on the BEA website. BEA's international services statistics are also discussed in detail, including descriptions of data sources, a comparison of U.S. trade in services and services supplied through affiliates, and a listing of the categories of services from BEA's published statistics that are classified as ICT and digitally deliverable, in chapter 31 of U.S. International Economic Accounts: Concepts and Methods.
1. Previously, these data were presented as “characteristics of firms that trade services,” but in May 2024, their title was updated to “services trade by enterprise characteristics (STEC)” to better align with terminology used in emerging international statistical guidance and by key trading partners.