Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services

GATS framework 
4. The growth of trade in services and the 
internationalization of services production have led to an 
increase in the movement of natural persons as service 
providers across borders.
a
Firms operating 
internationally need to transfer expertise through the 
temporary relocation of specialists and professionals.
b
The development of faster, lower cost transport services 
and communication networks, as well as improvements 
in the dissemination of information generally, tend to 
make the temporary movement of natural persons an 
increasingly important mode or aspect of trade. 
Established statistical systems do not include this aspect 
of trade in services in the scope of trade. Nor can 
existing mechanisms for administrative reporting of the 
movement of natural persons across international 
borders or for direct collection of the necessary 
information by statistical agencies capture mode 4 
activities in a satisfactory manner. As a result, available 
statistics are scarce and incomplete, and this makes it 
difficult to get internationally comparable statistics on 
trade in services according to this mode, in particular on 
the movement of natural persons across international 
borders.
5. Trade in services involving the 
presence
of foreign 
nationals is defined in GATS as mode 4.
c
Mode 4 is the 
supply of service by a supplier from one member 
country (say, country A) in the territory of any other 
member (country B) through the presence of natural 
persons of a member (citizen or resident of country A or 
a
Some illustrative data for the Asia and Pacific region are 
provided in Philippe Garnier, “International trade in services: 
a growing trend among highly skilled migrants with special 
reference to Asia”, 
Asia and Pacific Migration Journal,
vol. 5, 
No. 4 (1996). 
b
The importance of mode 4 for private business has been 
emphasized in the 
Recommendations of the World Services 
Congress 99, 1
−
3 November 1999, Atlanta
. 
c
Throughout the present annex, reference is made to the 
articles and provisions of the General Agreement on Trade in 
Services (World Trade Organization, 
The Results of the 
Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations: The 
Legal Texts
(Geneva, 1995), annex 1B). 

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74 
any other country except B).
d
In other words, the 
definition states that mode 4 is the production, 
distribution, marketing, sale, or delivery of a service 
abroad by a natural or juridical person (to the extent a 
juridical person employs foreign nationals in the host 
country). The GATS annex on movement of natural 
persons supplying services under the Agreement 
describes the