ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the specific patterns of trade in services with the help of statistical series, detailing the structure by area and by branch of activity. The forms in which the free trade in services is impeded cover a wide spectrum. Many of them are fairly comparable to those that hinder goods trade. Contrary to the situation for goods, the Treaty is silent as to the organisation of an external policy in matters of services. As a consequence the external regime for a large number of services was in fact not a common one, but a set of national ones. The surpluses of the branches of financial services and of business services would appear to reflect their strong competitiveness on world markets. A negative balance existed for audiovisual services and software, where the USA has a very strong competitive edge.
