CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

(notably the balance of payments) can cover in terms of detail on international transactions by
service sector, and what a country’s statistics by mode of supply should provide. Furthermore,
service suppliers/consumers may not always be aware of their international supply and
consumption of services. Therefore, we address here the General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS) extension of the definition of trade in services to include the four modes of
supply. Then we provide information and statistics on trade in services in Burkina Faso.
Modes of Supply for Trade in Services
A summary view of the GATS four modes of service supply, as described in the Manual on
Statistics of International Trade in Services, is shown in Figure 4. 15
Figure 4: The Four Modes of Supply for Trade in Services
Cross-border
trade in
services
Consumption
abroad
Commercial
presence
Movement of
natural person
Forms of trade
in services
Mode 1, Cross-border Supply, takes place when a service is supplied ‘from the territory of one
Member into the territory of any other Member’. That is, the service is rendered by a resident in
one economic territory to a resident of another economic territory, and only the service ‘crosses
the border’. This is similar to trade in goods where the product is delivered across borders and
the consumer and the supplier remain in their respective territories. Examples for cultural
services are sound engineering, fashion design services supplied via the Internet or audiovisual
services, and the trade of audience attention.
Mode 2, Consumption Abroad, occurs when the service is supplied ‘in the territory of one
Member to the service consumer of any other Member’. That is, the consumer consumes the
service outside his or her home territory: either the consumer or his property is abroad.
Examples for cultural services include cultural, festival, and heritage tourism.
Mode 3, Commercial Presence, takes place through ‘the supply of a service ... by a service
supplier of one Member, through commercial presence in the territory of any other Member’.
Commercial presence in a market abroad covers not only juridical persons in the strict legal
sense, but also legal entities that share some of the same characteristics, such as representative
offices and branches. Examples for cultural services include the establishment of an art gallery
or a recording studio abroad.
Mode 4, Presence of Natural Persons, occurs when an individual is temporarily present in the
territory of an economy other than his own to provide a commercial service. GATS defines
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The manual, published by the UN (editions in 2002 and 2010), was prepared by the Interagency Task Force on
Statistics of International Trade in Services, which includes the UN, EU, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, and WTO. It is
found at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradeserv/tfsits/manual.htm/.
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