The experimental dataset, which uses both official figures and estimates for missing data, provides for each economy and sector estimates of how much services is traded through the four modes of supply. As defined in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the four modes of trading services are through cross-border supply such as through the internet, consumption abroad such as tourism, commercial presence of an enterprise such as establishing an affiliate in a foreign country to serve the local market, and individuals travelling from their own country to supply services in another such as consultants.

The 200 economies covered by the dataset includes all WTO members and observers. The development of this dataset was made possible by the European Union.

“World trade, particularly in services, is evolving rapidly amid new technologies and the WTO sees growing services trade to be an important feature of the future of global commerce,” said Robert Koopman, the WTO's chief economist and director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division (ERSD). “We think it is important for research and statistics to try and keep up with this rapidly evolving sector of trade.”
 

Source: Vitic/ wto.org