International Standards and Classifications of Trade and Tourism

Trade statistics play an important information role in analysing the strengths and weaknesses of economies and in assessing the impacts of different policies and identifying opportunities offered by partners’ markets. TheWorld Trade Organisation, recognising the increasing role of the service sector, concluded the General Agreement of Trade in Services (GATS) in 1995, bringing services more into the spotlight of considerations about international trade. In addition to the general obligations that apply across all service sectors of all WTO Members, countries can choose which service sector and mode they wish to open up to trade. GATS has been an important driving force for the development of statistics on the international supply of services, and has influenced the establishment of a classification of four different modes of trade in services. The supply of health care services can take place in all four of these GATS modes, although not all are relevant to the measurement of trade under the System of Health Accounts.