July 6, 2009
News Release 09-049
Inv. No. 332-345
Contact: Peg O'Laughlin, 202-205-1819

U.S. service firms led the world in global services trade in 2007, reports the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) in its publication Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, 2009 Annual Report.

The United States remains the world's largest services market and also the world's leading exporter and importer of services, according to the report.

The ITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, compiles the report annually. The report presents a statistical overview of U.S. trade in services and highlights the service sectors and geographic markets that contributed substantially to recent services trade performance.

This year's report focuses primarily on professional services and includes separate chapters on advertising, education, healthcare, and legal services that analyze global competitive conditions in the industry, examine recent trade performance, and summarize efforts to remove sectoral trade impediments.

The 2009 report covers trade in services from 2002 to 2007. Highlights of the report follow.

• The United States continues to have the largest services trade surplus of any country in the world, and professional services were major contributors to the growing U.S. services surplus.
• Sales of services by U.S. parent firms' affiliates abroad continue to grow, reflecting the importance to many U.S. service sectors, including professional services, of expanding a commercial presence abroad.
• U.S. professional services' contribution to GDP in 2007 was large, reaching $1.7 trillion, or 17 percent of the U.S. private-sector GDP. Employment in U.S. professional service industries stood at about 25 million in that year.
• Several factors have created new opportunities for U.S. professional service suppliers in overseas markets. Economic growth in emerging economies such as China and India has spurred demand for professional services such as advertising and legal services as more local businesses seek to enter and compete in new markets. Technological advancements, such as the proliferation of the Internet and digital video and telecommunications equipment, have allowed healthcare service providers to reach more consumers at lower cost through telemedicine. Government policies that provide tax incentives and liberalize visa regimes have promoted foreign direct investment in local education systems.
• Unilateral efforts to liberalize impediments to services trade and reduce government intervention in the regulation of professional services continue to have a favorable impact on the expansion of professional services trade.
• The report includes a summary of the Commission's second annual services roundtable, which was held on December 4, 2008. The roundtable drew participation from services experts within industry, government, and academia. The discussion focused on the financial crisis of 2008, the prospects for liberalization under the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services, and other liberalization efforts.

Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, 2009 Annual Report (Investigation No. 332-345, USITC publication 4084, July 2009) is available on the USITC's Internet site at http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4084.pdf. A CD-ROM of the report may be requested by e-mailing pubrequest@usitc.gov, calling 202-205-2000, or writing the Office of the Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20436. Requests may also be faxed to 202-205-2104.