U.S. international sales and purchases of services.
DiLullo, Anthony J. ; Whichard, Obie G.
U.S. International Sales and Purchases of Services
In recent years, to improve the coverage and accuracy of its
estimates of U.S. international sales and purchases of services, BEA has
taken several steps:
* Instituted benchmark and annual
surveys of selected business,
professional, and technical
services;
* Improved the surveys covering
royalties and license fees; architectural,
engineering, construction,
and mining services; and
insurance;
* Developed or improved estimates
of international travel transactions
and of transactions in educational,
financial, and medical
services; and
* Added questions on sales of services
by affiliates to its surveys of
direct investment. (1)
This article builds upon these earlier efforts by presenting
information on services in a more detailed and unified format than has
been available previously. BEA plans to continue to improve its
information on international services; areas that have been targeted for
further development include financial services and transportation.
Services may be delivered to foreign markets through alternative
channels. A business in one country can sell services to persons in
another country either directly, through cross-border transactions, or
indirectly, through affiliates in other countries. This article presents
information on both channels of delivery. The information on private
cross-border transactions in services, which are included in the U.S.
international transactions (balance of payments) accounts, covers both
U.S. sales and U.S. purchases of services. The information on
transactions of affiliates, which is obtained from BEA's direct
investment surveys, covers sales of services abroad by majority-owned
foreign affiliates of U.S. companies and sales in the United States by
majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign companies. (2) Although it
would be interesting, for some purposes, to examine affiliates'
purchases of services in their countries of location, no information on
such purchases is collected in BEA's surveys.
The data on U.S. cross-border transactions in services are for
1986-89; the data for 1986 are the earliest available for several types
of services transactions. The data on sales by foreign affiliates of
U.S. companies are for 1986-88, and those on sales by U.S. affiliates of
foreign companies are for 1987-88. Data on sales by U.S. and foreign
affiliates in 1989 are not yet available, and the series on sales by
U.S. affiliates did not begin until 1987. The data on both types of
transactions will be updated annually and will be made available by BEA.
The data will also be included in the new National Trade Data Bank. (3)
Separate data on the two channels of delivery permit analysis of
their differing economic effects. To a large extent, the two channels
differ in their impact on an economy because of differences in the
location of factors of production that generate value added. U.S.
cross-border sales mainly reflect value added by U.S. factors of
production, whereas sales of services abroad by foreign affiliates of
U.S. companies mainly reflect value added by foreign factors (primarily
labor). Similarly, services that U.S. persons purchase directly from
abroad mainly reflect value added by foreign factors of production,
whereas services they purchase from U.S. affiliates of foreign companies
mainly reflect value added by U.S. workers and other domestic factors of
production.
The data included in this article are useful in analyzing the
impact of international services business from alternative perspectives.
The data on cross-border services transactions are useful in analyzing
international services business from the perspective of the United
States as a geographic location. Used together with the data on sales by
affiliates, they are useful in analyzing the worldwide operations of
multinational companies, in investigating the channels used to deliver
services internationally, and in assessing access to, and penetration
of, foreign markets.
Overview
For cross-border transactions, U.S. sales of private services were
larger than purchases in 1986 ($76.0 billion, compared with $65.3
billion) (table 1). Sales also grew faster in 1986 - 89 - at an average
annual rate of 14 percent, compared with 9 percent for purchases. By
1989, U.S. sales of services were $113.9 billion, and U.S. purchases of
services were $85.7 billion; the surplus of sales over purchases, at
$28.2 billion, was more than double the surplus of $10.7 billion
recorded in 1986.
Table : Delivery of Services to Foreign and U.S. Markets Through
Cross-Border Transactions and Through Sales by Affiliates
[Millions of dollars]
1986 1987 1988 1989
U.S cross-border (balance of
payments) transactions:
U.S. sales (exports) 76,031 85,499 99,474 113,903
U.S purchases (imports) 65,327 74,167 81,212 85,694
Sales by nonbank majority-owned
affiliates:
Sales to foreign persons by
foreign affiliates of U.S.
companies 72,849 87,011 100,733 n.a.
Sales to U.S. persons by U.S.
affiliates of foreign
companies n.a. 62,553 68,678 n.a.
n.a. Not available
During the periods for which data are available, sales of services
by both U.S. and foreign affiliates grew rapidly. Sales of services to
foreign persons by majority-owned foreign affiliates of U.S. companies
increased at an average annual rate of 18 percent in 1986-88, rising
from $72.8 billion in 1986 to $100.7 billion in 1988. Sales of services
to U.S. persons by majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign companies
were smaller and grew more slowly; they increased from $62.6 billion in
1987 to $68.7 billion in 1988, an increase of 10 percent. (4)
The remainder of this article is in three parts. The first part
describes the data and some of its limitations. The second discusses the
composition of cross-border transactions by geographic area and by type
of service or intangible asset, and the third discusses the composition
of affiliate sales by geographic area and by industry of affiliate.
Description of the Data
Cross-border transactions
As mentioned earlier, cross-border services transactions are
included in the U.S. international transactions, or balance of payments,
accounts, which record all economic transactions between U.S. residents
and nonresidents. The cross-border transactions covered by this article
are those recorded in the five major line items for private services in
these accounts - travel, passenger fares, other transportation,
royalties and license fees, and other private services.
Recording methods. - With one exception, the data on cross-border
transactions are presented as they are recorded in the international
transactions accounts; "sales" of services corresponds to
"exports" of services and "purchases" of services
corresponds to "imports" of services. The exception is in
transactions between affiliated parties in royalties and license fees
and other private services, which are presented on a net basis in the
international transactions accounts and on a gross basis in this
article. In the international transactions accounts, net transactions of
U.S. parent companies - U.S. parents' receipts from their foreign
affiliates less payments to them - are recorded as exports, and net
transactions of U.S. affiliates - U.S. affiliates' payments to
their foreign parents less receipts from them - are recorded as imports.
In this article, to provide the most detailed picture possible of the
two-way flow of services transactions between the United States and
foreign countries, these transactions are shown on a gross basis.
Receipts of U.S. parents from their foreign affiliates and of U.S.
affiliates from their foreign parents are shown as U.S. exports (sales)
of services, and payments by U.S. parents to their foreign affiliates
and by U.S. affiliates to their foreign parents are shown as U.S.
imports (purchases). As a result, the U.S. cross-border sales and
purchases of services shown on this basis exceed the exports and imports
of services recorded in the U.S. international transactions accounts.
However, because sales and purchases are larger by an equal amount ($7.7
billion in 1989), the balance between them is identical to the balance
between exports and imports in the international accounts (table 2).
Table : [TABULAR OMITTED]
Classification. - The cross-border transactions are classified by
type of service except for (1) royalty and license fee and other private
services transactions between affiliated parties, (2) royalty and
license fee transactions between unaffiliated parties, and (3) travel
transactions. The first are classified by industry of the affiliate
involved in the transaction and the second by type of intangible asset;
the third - travel - is not a type of service, but a category for
recording travelers' expenditures - both for goods (such as
souvenirs and gifts) and for services (such as lodging, entertainment,
and local transportation).
Sales by affiliates
The information on sales of services by affiliates is obtained from
BEA's surveys of U.S. direct investment abroad and foreign direct
investment in the United States. The information of particular interest
for this article is that on sales of services abroad by U.S. companies
through their majority-owned foreign affiliates and sales of services in
the United States by foreign companies through their majority-owned U.S.
affiliates. These sales represent delivery of services by a company in
one country to customers in other countries through direct investment.
For many services, such sales may constitute the only practical channel
of delivery to foreign markets. Delivery through cross-border
transactions may be difficult or impossible because the service needs to
be produced and consumed at the same time and in the same place or
because the producer and the consumer of the service need close and
continuing contact.
Coverage and definition. - The data on sales of services by
affiliates cover majority-owned nonbank affiliates of nonbank parents.
Because they report extensive data to other Government agencies, banks
are required to report only limited data on BEA's direct investment
surveys, and they are exempted from the surveys that collect information
on sales of services by affiliates.
In these data, sales of services are defined as sales
characteristic of a particular group of industries: The industries that
constitute the "services" division of the Standard Industrial
Classification; petroleum services; finance (except banking), insurance,
and real estate; agricultural services; mining services; and
transportation, communication, and public utilities. Affiliates that are
not classified in one of these industries often have sales of services.
In fact, sales by affiliates that are classified in manufacturing and
other goods-producing industries but that sell services as a secondary
activity account for a significant portion of the sales of services by
affiliates presented in this article. As discussed later, these sales
are not available by type of service but are shown in the accompanying tables opposite the industry of the affiliate making the sale.
In BEA's direct investment surveys, an "affiliate"
includes any business enterprise that is owned 10 percent or more by an
investor of a different country, but the data on sales of services by
affiliates presented in this article are restricted to affiliates that
are majority-owned (50 percent or more owned) by direct investors. For
foreign affiliates, data on sales of services are available only for
majority-owned affiliates.
Classification. - Data on sales of services by affiliates are not
reported to BEA by type of service; instead, sales are classified
according to the primary industry of the affiliate making the sale, even
though, in particular cases, secondary industries of the affiliate
account for some of the sales. The primary industry of the affiliate
often provides a good guide to the type of service being sold. This may
be true even when the affiliate's primary industry is not a
services industry, but the affiliate provides services in support of the
goods it sells (such as computer and data-processing services sold by
computer manufacturers). Because the degree of consolidation permitted
for reporting foreign affiliates is less than that permitted for U.S.
affiliates, the industry of the affiliate probably provides a better
guide to the types of services sold by a foreign affiliate than it does
to those sold by a U.S. affiliate.(5)
Comparability issues
The data on cross-border transactions are not completely comparable
with the data on sales by affiliates because of differences in
definition, concepts, classification, and data availability. For
cross-border transactions, the data on sales are not completely because
information for some purchases is not available. In addition, the data
on sales by foreign affiliates are not completely comparable with those
on sales by U.S. affiliates. Differences in methods of classification
have been noted earlier. Comparability issues concerning individual
services or types of transactions are noted below. The first four are
differences between the data on cross-border transactions and those on
affiliate sales.
One difference is in the treatment of construction. In the data on
cross-border transactions, construction is considered a service, partly
because of convention and partly because most of the transactions
involve service-type activities such as construction management,
engineering, and architecture. In contrast, in the data on sales by
affiliates, construction is treated as goods producing because of the
tangible and visible nature of the end product.
A second difference is in the treatment of investment income. In
the data on cross-border transactions, "services" is defined
to exclude such income. In contrast, in the data on sales by foreign
affiliates, investment income of finance (except banking) and insurance
companies is generally included in sales of services. This difference in
treatment reflects the type of information on sales of services by
affiliates that was initially requested in BEA's surveys of U.S.
direct investment abroad and is to be eliminated beginning with data for
1989.(6)
A third difference is in the treatment of insurance. In the U.S.
international transactions accounts, insurance exports are recorded as
premiums received net of losses paid, and insurance imports are recorded
as premiums paid net of losses recovered. (However, cross-border
transactions are disaggregated in tables 5 and 7 to show premiums and
losses separately.) In contrast, the data on sales by affiliates are not
net of losses, because they are obtained from a breakdown of operating
revenues, a measure that includes only premiums (and other receipts);
thus, they should not be compared with the net amounts shown for
cross-border insurance transactions.
A fourth difference concerns banks. As mentioned earlier, the data
on sales by affiliates do not cover banks. In contrast, for cross-border
transactions, some information on U.S. sales of banking services is
available; none is available on U.S. purchases of these services.
An additional difference exists between sales and purchases in the
data on cross-border transactions. Specifically, the data on
cross-border transactions for medical services, like those for banks,
are available for U.S. sales but not for purchases.
U.S. Balance of Payments
(Cross-Border) Transactions
U.S. receipts for exports (cross-border sales) of private services
were $113.9 billion in 1989 (table 2). Travel and other private
services, each at about 30 percent of total receipts, accounted for the
majority of receipts. Passenger fares and other transportation accounted
for 27 percent, and royalties and license fees for 11 percent.
U.S. payments for imports (cross-border purchases) of private
services were $85.7 billion. Travel, at 41 percent of payments, was the
largest single category. Passenger fares and other transportation
accounted for 34 percent of payments, other private services for 22
percent, and royalties and license fees for 3 percent.
Travel, passenger fares, and other
transportation
Travel. - Travel includes aggregate estimates of transactions in a
variety of services and related goods by persons traveling abroad for
less than 1 year for business or personal reasons. The types of services
and related goods most likely to be purchased by travelers are lodging,
meals, entertainment, transportation within the country or area visited,
gifts, and articles (except automobiles) for personal use. (Automobiles
are included in merchandise trade in the international transactions
accounts.)
U.S. receipts from foreign visitors to the United States were $34.4
billion in 1989 (table 3.4). About 25 percent, or $8.2 billion, of
receipts were from Canada and Mexico. Transactions in the U.S. border
areas with these countries accounted for 12 percent of receipts from
Canada and 80 percent of receipts from Mexico. These transactions
include expenditures for shopping, commuting to jobs in the U.S. border
areas, and other similar activities. Border transactions differ from
other travel transactions because they involve numerous visits and small
average expenditures.
Visitors to the United States from overseas (other than Canada and
Mexico) accounted for 76 percent, or $26.2 billion, of U.S. travel
receipts in 1989. Japanese visitors accounted for 25 percent of overseas
receipts, and Western European visitors for 40 percent. More than
one-half of receipts from Western Europe were from the United Kingdom,
West Germany, and France. "Latin America and other Western
Hemisphere" (excluding Mexico) accounted for 16 percent of the
overseas total, and all other countries for 17 percent.
Travel receipts increased at an average annual rate of 19 percent
in 1986-89. Most of the growth was in receipts from Japan and Western
Europe. Rising incomes and appreciation of those countries'
currencies against the U.S. dollar increased the attractiveness of the
United States as a travel destination. Travel receipts from Canada also
increased strongly; most of the increases occurred during the winter,
when Canadians traveled to warm areas of the United States.
(1.) Some of the improvements are outlined in "U.S. Sales of
Services to Foreigners" in the January 1987 issue of the Survey of
Current Business. That article also describes the sources of information
used to construct estimates of services transactions. More recent
improvements are described in technical notes to the articles on U.S.
international transactions in the June issues of the Survey,
particularly the June 1989 issue. Information on the sources and methods
used for estimating services recorded in the U.S. international
transactions accounts may also be found in The Balance of Payments of
the United States: Concepts, Data Sources, and Estimating Procedures
(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, May 1990).
(2.) In a recent series of studies of patterns of merchandise
trade, Robert E. Lipsey and Irving B. Kravis have made similar
distinctions between U.S.-owned and U.S.-located companies. See
"The Competitive Position of U.S. Manufacturing Firms," Banca
Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, No. 153 (June 1985): 127-54;
"The Competitivenes and Comparative Advantage of U.S.
Multinationals, 1957-84," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly
Review, No. 161 (June 1987): 147-65; and "Technological
Characteristics of Industries and the Competitiveness of the U.S. and
Its Multinational Firms," National Bureau of Economic Research,
Working Paper No. 2933 (April 1989).
(3.) The National Trade Data Bank is a database that brings
together, in one location, trade and export promotion data collected by
14 Federal Government agencies. For further information, write National
Trade Data Bank, Office of Business Analysis, U.S. Department of
Commerce, Room 4878, HCH Building, Washington, DC 20230.
(4.) As explained later, comparisons of sales by U.S. affiliates
with those by foreign affiliates are complicated by a difference in the
treatment of investment income. It is likely, however, that if this
difference could be eliminated, foreign affiliates sales of services
still would exceed those by U.S. affiliates, although by a smaller
amount than these figures indicate.
(5.) Reports for foreign affiliates may be consolidated only if the
affiliates are in the same country and only if they are integral parts
of the same business operation. U.S. affiliates, in contrast, generally
report to BEA on a fully consolidated domestic (U.S.) basis and include
in the consolidation each affiliate owned more than 50 percent by the
company above it. However, information for U.S. affiliates on the
distribution of each affiliate's sales by industry of sales is
reported for industry-coding purposes. This information is used in this
article in analyzing the composition of sales of services by U.S.
affiliates.
(6.) The initial survey questions requested that sales or gross
operating revenues be disaggregated into only two categories, goods and
services. When investment income was received from the primary
activities of a company, it was included in the company's operating
revenues. Because almost all of these cases involved companies in the
finance (except banking) and insurance industries, both of which are
services industries, the income was almost invariably included is sales
of services. Beginning with the 1989 benchmark survey of U.S. direct
investment abroad, investment income is being reported separately and
will be excluded from sales of services by foreign affiliates. In the
data on sales by U.S. affiliates, like those on cross-border
transactions, "services" excludes investment income.
U.S. travel payments to foreigners were $35.0 billion in 1989.
About 26 percent, or $9.1 billion, of payments were to Canada and
Mexico. About 11 percent of payments to Canada and 55 percent of
payments to Mexico were in the border areas. U.S. payments for travel
overseas were $25.9 billion. The major destinations for U.S. overseas
travelers were Western Europe (particularly the United Kingdom, West
Germany, France, and Italy), which accounted for 44 percent of overseas
travel payments, and the Carribean area, which accounted for about 20
percent. Payments to Japan were 7 percent of the overseas total, and
payments to all other areas (particularly Australia, South Korea, and
HongKong) were 28 percent.
Travel payments increased more slowly - at an average annual rate
of 9 percent - than receipts in 1986-89. The depreciation of the dollar
during this period, particularly against the Japanese and major Western
European currencies, was partly responsible. A slowdown in travel to the
major Western European destinations was partially offset by an
acceleration in travel to other Western European countries, mainly in
the southern and eastern areas where prices were lower, and to Mexico.
Increases in travel to Mexico partly resulted from the depreciation of
the peso against the U.S. dollar and from strong promotional efforts.
Passenger fares. - Passenger fares consist of the earnings of
vessel and airline operators for transporting persons. Exports consist
of receipts of U.S. operators for transporting foreign residents (1)
between the United States and foreign countries and (2) between foreign
countries. (7) Imports consist of payments to foreign operators for
transporting U.S. residents to and from the United States. Passenger
fare receipts, which were $10.1 billion in 1989, were entirely from U.S.
airline operations. Ninety percent of receipts were from traffic to and
from the United States, and the remainder were from air transportation
of foreign persons between foreign countries. Over 90 percent of
payments, which were $8.5 billion, were from foreign airline operations,
and the remainder were from vessel operations.
The rapid increase in passenger fare receipts in 1986-89 - at an
average annual rate of 23 percent - reflected the strong growth in
travel by foreign visitors to the United States. Passenger fare payments
increased much more slowly - at an average annual rate of 8 percent.
Other transportation. - Other transportation consists primarily of
international transactions, other than passenger fares, of ship and
airline operators. Exports include freight receipts of U.S. vessel and
airline operators for transporting U.S. merchandise exports from U.S.
ports to foreign destinations and for transporting freight between
foreign countries; imports include freight payments to foreign operators
for transporting U.S. merchandise imports. (8) Other transportation also
includes port services. Exports include the value of goods and services
provided to U.S. vessel and airline operators in connection with their
operations outside the United States. Imports include the value of port
services provided to foreign operators in the United States. Port
services include fees for the following: Services such as piloting,
towing, and berthing for ships and landing rights for airlines; cargo
handling services, such as stevedoring and warehousing; fuel; and other
goods and services, such as supplies, brokers' and port
agents' fees, cleaning and catering services, and administrative
and office services.
Other transportation receipts were $20.4 billion in 1989. Payments
were $20.8 billion. For both receipts and payments, foreign carriers,
which play a dominant role in transporting both U.S. imports and U.S.
exports, accounted for a major share of the transactions. Port services
provided to foreign operators accounted for two-thirds of receipts.
Freight payments to foreign operators accounted for more than one-half
of payments.
Freight. - Freight receipts were $5.8 billion in 1989. Two-thirds
were receipts of U.S. ocean vessel operators, and one-third were
receipts of U.S. airline operators. Ocean freight receipts were largely
for liner, or scheduled, service and for transportation of agricultural
exports, particularly grain, to countries in Asia. Air freight receipts
were primarily for service to countries in Western Europe and to Japan.
Other freight receipts, mainly for transporting Canadian-owned oil and
gas by pipeline in transit through the United States, were small.
Freight payments were $11.8 billion in 1989. Ocean freight payments
were 80 percent of the total, and air freight payments were 19 percent.
Twenty percent of ocean freight payments were for transporting crude
petroleum and petroleum products. About one-half of these payments were
to vessel operators based in flag-of-convenience countries, such as
Panama and Liberia (recorded under "international organizations and
unallocated" in table 3), for transporting crude petroleum from
South America and the Middle East, and about one-fourth of these
payments were to Western European operators, mainly in the United
Kingdom and Norway, for transporting crude petroleum from the North Sea
to the United States. Ocean freight payments for transporting other
goods were mainly to Japan, Western Europe, the flag-of-convenience
countries, South Korea, and countries in southeast Asia.
Port services. - Receipts for port services provided to foreign
operators in the United States were $13.8 billion in 1989. Ship
operators received 55 percent of port services, and airline operators
received 44 percent. Payments by U.S. ship and airline operators for
port services abroad were $8.2 billion, of which airlines paid 72
percent and ship operators 27 percent.
Port services provided to ship operators were related mainly to
freight transportation activities, and port services provided to airline
operators were related mainly to passenger transportation activities.
For both ship and airline operators, the largest single component of
port services was fuel.
Royalties and license fees
Royalties and license fees consist of receipts and payments for the
use of patented techniques, processes, formulas, and other intangible
property rights used in goods production, as well as copyrights,
trademarks, franchises, rights to broadcast live events, and other
intangible rights. Licensing and other agreements for the use of
intangible property rights provide an important means for transferring
technology and for marketing goods; thus, they provide an important
alternative or complement to direct exporting. Licensing and other
agreements with foreign companies that have extensive production
facilities and marketing networks may be used by companies to sell their
technology or to promote products bearing their brand names in foreign
markets. Such agreements may be entered into either with unaffiliated
foreign companies or with foreign affiliates. Companies may prefer to
enter into licensing agreements with their foreign affiliates to obtain
a return on their intangible assets in foreign countries while
exercising additional control over their technology and products.
Total royalty and license fee receipts - including transactions
between both affiliated and unaffiliated parties - were $12.3 billion in
1989, and payments were $2.7 billion (table 4.4). Although payments
doubled between 1986 and 1989, they were only 22 percent as large as
receipts in 1989. Thus, the United States remained a strong net exporter
of rights to technology and other intangible assets.
Affiliated transactions. - Affiliated cross-border transactions are
those between parents and affiliates - that is, between U.S. parent
companies and their foreign affiliates and between U.S. affiliates and
their foreign parent groups. (9)
Affiliated receipts consist of U.S. parents' receipts from
their foreign affiliates and U.S. affiliates' receipts from their
foreign parent groups. Affiliated receipts, which increased at an
average annual rate of 19 percent in 1986-89, accounted for almost 80
percent of total royalty and license fee receipts in 1989. Almost all of
the affiliated receipts were received by U.S. parent companies from
their foreign affiliates. Although U.S. parent companies have agreements
with affiliates in many countries, over 60 percent of U.S. parents'
receipts were from only five countries: Japan accounted for 16 percent;
the United Kingdom, 14 percent; West Germany, 12 percent; France, 10
percent; and Canada, 9 percent. By industry, the majority of receipts
were from affiliates engaged in manufacturing machinery, passenger cars
and other transportation equipment, and chemicals.
Affiliated transactions also accounted for a majority - 68 percent
- of payments of royalties and license fees. Affiliated payments, which
include U.S. parents' payments to their foreign affiliates and U.S.
affiliates' payments to their foreign parents, were almost entirely
accounted for by U.S. affiliates' payments to parent companies,
largely in the United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, and West Germany.
Payments to the United Kingdom, which accounted for 24 percent of the
total in 1989, almost tripled in 1986-89 as a result of large
investments in the United States by British companies.
Unaffiliated transactions. - Receipts from unaffiliated foreign
companies were $2.6 billion in 1989, or 21 percent of total receipts of
royalties and license fees. Thirty-nine percent of these receipts were
from Japan and 5-6 percent each were from the United Kingdom, West
Germany, Canada, and South Korea. Fees for industrial processes, largely
those used in machinery and chemical manufacturing, accounted for about
70 percent of unaffiliated receipts.
Payments of royalties and fees by U.S. companies to unaffiliated
foreign companies were mostly for industrial
(7.) Because the U.S. international accounts measure only
transactions between U.S. and foreign residents, receipts of U.S.
operators for transporting U.S. residents overseas (which are
transactions between U.S. residents) are not included in passenger
fares. Similarly, earnings of foreign airlines for transporting foreign
residents between the United States and foreign countries (which are
transaction between foreign residents) are not included.
(8.) In estimating freight receipts and payments for the
international transactions accounts, the convention used is that the
importer owns the goods being transported and bears the cost of
transportation. Thus, receipts of U.S. operators for transporting U.S.
merchandise imports are excluded from U.S. transportation receipts
because they represent transactions between U.S. residents - U.S.
importers and U.S. vessell and airline operators. Similarly, revenues of
foreign operators for transporting U.S. merchandise exports are excluded
from U.S. payments because they represent transactions between foreign
importers and foreign operators.
(9.) A U.S. affiliate's foreign parent is the first person
outside the United States in its ownership chain that has a direct
investment interest in the affiliate. Its foreign parent group consist
of (1) the foreign parent, (2) any foreign person, proceeding up the
foreign parent's ownership chain, that owns more than 50 percent of
the person below it, up to and including the ultimate beneficial owner,
and (3) any foreign person, proceeding down the ownership chain(s) of
each of these members, that is owned more than 50 percent by the person
above it. processes, largely those used in machinery and automotive
manufacturing. These payments were mainly to the United Kingdom, West
Germany, and Japan. Payments of fees for rights to broadcast live events
were unusually strong - 42 percent of total unaffiliated payments - in
1988, mainly because of the purchase of rights to broadcast the Olympic
games from South Korea.
Other private services
Other private services consist of a number of diverse activities.
Detail by type of service for transactions between unaffiliated persons
is presented in tables 5 and 7 - 10. Estimates are shown for education;
financial services; insurance; telecommunications; business,
professional, and technical services; and miscellaneous services not
included elsewhere. Similar detail, by type of service, for transactions
between affiliated persons is not available because the data are
reported only in the aggregate (table 6).
Affiliated transactions. - Affiliated services transactions - that
is, transactions between parents and affiliates - include include both
reimbursements for allocated expenses (such as research and development
assessments or allocated overhead expenses for management and accounting
services performed by the parent company for the entire multinational
company) and charges for specific services affiliates purchase from, or
sell to, their parent companies.
Affiliated receipts for other private services were $11.6 billion
in 1989 (tables 5.4 and 6.2). Receipts by U.S. parents accounted for 70
percent of the affiliated total. The majority of the receipts were from
foreign affiliates in manufacturing, insurance, and service industries.
Receipts by U.S. affiliates were largely by affiliates in manufacturing
industries and wholesale trade.
Table : [Tabular Omitted]
Affiliated payments for other private services were $6.6 billion.
In contrast to receipts, payments were more evenly divided between U.S.
parents and U.S. affiliates. U.S. parents in manufacturing (mainly
machinery), insurance, and services industries accounted for the
majority of payments to foreign affiliates. Affiliates in manufacturing
industries accounted for two-fifths of U.S. affiliates' payments to
foreign parents.
Unaffiliated transactions. - In transactions between unaffiliated
persons, receipts were $25.0 billion in 1989, or 68 percent of total
receipts for other private services, and payments were $12.1 billion, or
65 percent of total payments for these services. In 1986-89, the average
annual rate of increase for receipts was 9 percent, compared with 7
percent for payments.
Education. - Education receipts consist of expenditures for tuition and living expenses by foreign residents enrolled in U.S. colleges and
universities. Payments consist of tuition and living expenses of U.S.
institutions for study abroad.
Education receipts were $4.6 billion in 1989, or 18 percent of
total unaffiliated receipts for other private services; education
payments were $0.6 billion, or 5 percent of total unaffiliated payments
for other private services. More than one-half of receipts were from
developing countries, and almost 70 percent of payments were to
countries in Western Europe.
Financial services. - The coverage of estimates of financial
services is limited, largely because of the lack of source data that can
be adapted to developing estimates appropriate for the international
transactions accounts. Financial services receipts include commissions
and fees for transactions in U.S. securities paid to U.S. securities
brokers by foreign residents. Payments include commissions and fees for
transactions in foreign securities paid by U.S. residents to foreign
brokers. In addition, receipts include noninterest income of U.S. banks
and commissions received by U.S. commodities brokers from foreign
residents. Available estimates of non-interest income of U.S. banks are
limited to fees for bankers acceptances, commercial letters of credit,
standby letters of credit, undrawn funds under commitment, and items for
collection.
Financial services receipts were $5.0 billion in 1989, or 20
percent of total unaffiliated receipts for other private services. These
receipts, which increased at an average annual rate of 16 percent in
1986-89, were among the fastest growing components of the total. Even
though the data on bank fees are limited, they accounted for 56 percent
of financial services receipts in 1989, while securities and commodities
brokers' fees and commissions accounted for 44 percent.
Payments for financial services were $2.0 billion in 1989, or 17
percent of unaffiliated payments for other private services. The average
annual rate of increase for payments was 6 percent in 1986-89. These
estimates consist of U.S. payments of commissions to foreign securities
brokers only.
Insurance. - Insurance includes premiums received and paid for
primary insurance and for reinsurance. Losses paid by U.S. insurers and
losses recovered from foreign insurers are netted against the premiums.
Examples of primary insurance are life insurance; accident and health
insurance; and fire, marine, and casualty insurance. Each of these types
of insurance may be reinsured by the primary insurer; reinsurance is the
ceding of a portion of a premium to another insurer, who then assumes a
corresponding portion of the risk. This form of insurance is one way of
providing coverage for events with so high degree of risk or liability
that a single insurer would be unwilling or unable to underwrite insurance against their occurrence. Some examples of reinsurance are
insurance for product liability, medical malpractice, and various types
of hazards.
Net insurance receipts (premiums received less losses paid) were
$1.3 billion in 1989, or 5 percent of unaffiliated receipts6for other
private services.(10) Net receipts of primary insurance were $1.4
billion, and net losses for reinsurance were $0.2 billion (table 7.4).
In 1986-89, losses averaged 50 percent of premiums for primary
insurance, compared with 84 percent of premiums for reinsurance.
Net insurance payments (premiums paid less losses recovered) were
$0.7 billion in 1989, or 6 percent of unaffiliated payments for other
private services.(11) Net payments of primary insurance were $0.6
billion, and net payments of reinsurance were $0.2 billion.(12) In
1986-89, losses were 51 percent of premiums for primary insurance,
compared with 78 percent of premiums for reinsurance. Reinsurance losses
recovered were higher in 1989 than in 1986-88 because of unusually large
losses associated with Hurricane Hugo.
Primary insurance was concentrated in transactions with only a few
countries. In 1989, most of the premiums received were from Canada and
Japan, and most of the premiums paid were to the United Kingdom and
Bermuda. Reinsurance transactions also tended to be concentrated, mainly
among countries with large reinsurance markets, but they were less
concentrated than primary insurance transactions. Canada and the United
Kingdom together accounted for over 40 percent of the reinsurance
premiums received in 1989. Premiums were also received from numerous
other countries, the most important which were Bermuda, West Germany,
and Japan. Over one-half of U.S. reinsurance premium payments were to
the United Kingdom and Bermuda; other countries in Western Europe,
Caribbean countries, and Japan received most of the remainder.
Telecommunications. - Telecommunications transactions include
settlements between U.S. and foreign communications companies for the
transmission of messages between the United States and other countries,
channel leasing, electronic mail, video conferencing, and support
services. In addition, payments include fees for the leasing of
satellite channels from the International Telecommunications Satellite
Organization.
Telecommunications receipts by U.S. companies were $2.7 billion in
1989, or 11 percent of unaffiliated receipts for other private services
(table 8). Payments to foreign companies were $5.4 billion, or 45
percent of unaffiliated payments. Information from a benchmark survey
for 1986 indicated that over three-fourths of receipts and nearly 90
percent of payments were for settlements for the transmission of
messages between the United States and other countries.(13) The large
excess of payments over receipts was due to more calls being initiated
in the United States than abroad, partly reflecting relatively low rates
and high average incomes in the United States.
Table : [Tabular Data Omitted]
Business, professional, and technical services. - This category
covers a number of different types of services, such as advertising;
computer and data-processing services; database and other information
services; research, development, and testing; management, consulting,
and public relations; legal services; construction, engineering,
architectural, and mining services; industrial engineering; and
installation, maintenance, and repair of equipment (table 9,).
Receipts for business, professional, and technical services were
$6.1 billion in 1989, or about one-fourth of unaffiliated receipts for
other private services (table 9.4). Installation, maintenance, and
repair of equipment; computer and data-processing services;
construction, engineering, architectural, and mining services; and
"other" business, professional, and technical services
accounted for most of these receipts. A substantial share of services to
equipment consisted of servicing aircraft engines, steam-generating
turbines, and reciprocating engines. Receipts for computer and
data-processing services included services such as systems analysis,
design, engineering, custom programming, equipment leasing (except
financial leasing), and maintenace and repair of computer equipment; a
large share of these receipts in 1989 were for rights for the use of
programs for mainframe computers. Engineering and architectural services
were larger than construction and mining services in the group that
includes these services; construction services were limited mainly to
supervisory and managerial activities. Medical services was the major
component of receipts for "other" business, professional, and
technical services (table 10).(14) Most foreigners who came to the
United States for medical treatment were from "Latin America and
other Western Hemisphere."
(10.) As an alternative indicator of the importance of insurance,
premiums alone accounted for 18 percent of unaffiliated receipts for
other private services and 46 percent of payments. (11.) See footnote 10. (12.) Payments of primary insurance are probably underestimated
because it is difficult to identify all U.S. persons that purchase
insurance from nonresident companies. Data on reinsurance and receipts
of primary insurance are obtained from U.S. insurers, a homogeneous group that is more easily identified. Additionally, data on recovery of
losses associated with payments of primary insurance are not collected.
Estimates are prepared by BEA based on the experience of U.S. primary
insurers. (13.) When calls are made from one country to another, the
carriers in the two countries jointly provide the service and share the
revenue collected. The corresponding international transactions
represent the share of the revenue transmitted by the carrier in the
country of origin (which is the carrier that collects the fee from the
caller) to the carrier in the country of destination. (14.) Estimates of
receipts for medical services are based on information about the
operations of selected major medical centers, university hospitals, and
hospitals in major foreign visitor destinations. Payments for medical
services were not estimated because of the difficulty in identifying
individuals who purchase these services abroad. SURVEY OF CURRENT
BUSINESS
Payments for business, professional, and technical services were
$2.0 billion, or 16 percent of unaffiliated payments for other private
services. Most of these payments were accounted for by services to
equipment; construction, engineering, architectural, and mining
services; and advertising services. Services to equipment involved
primarily industrial machinery. Drilling and other petroleum-related
activities performed abroad for U.S. companies accounted for a large
share of payments for construction, engineering, architectural, and
mining services. Advertising included fees for preparing and placing
advertising copy.
Other unaffiliated services. - U.S. receipts for other unaffiliated
services were $5.3 billion in 1989. Expenditures of foreign governments
and international organizations accounted for 70 percent of the total.
These expenditures embassies and consulates in the United States, the
cost of maintaining missions to the United Nations, and outlays of
international organizations headquartered in the United States, such as
the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank;
they also include outlays by agents of foreign governments and
quasi-government agencies providing legal, public relations, news
dissemination, and travel and trade promotion services. Film rentals
accounted for 20 percent of other unaffiliated services receipts, and
wages of U.S. residents temporarily working abroad and receipts from
Canadian locals of U.S. trade unions accounted for the remainder.
U.S. payments for other unaffiliated services were $1.3 billion in
1989. Wages of commuters from Mexico and Canada, of foreign students,
and of other nonresidents temporarily employed in the United States
accounted for 80 percent of the total. Film rentals, payments to
Canadian locals of U.S. trade unions, and consular fees made up most of
the remainder.
Sales by Affiliates
Table 11 shows the complete matrix of available data on sales of
services by nonbank majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign companies
and foreign affiliates of U.S. companies for all countries and
industries combined. Data for foreign affiliates are available for
1986-88; data for U.S. affiliates are available for 1987 and 1988.
Highlights of the data for the two groups of affiliates in 1988 - the
most recent year for which data are available - are discussed in the two
sections that follow.
Table : Table 11. - Sales of Services by Nonbank Majority-Owned
U.S. Affiliates of Foreign Companies and by Nonbank Majority-Owned
Foreign Affiliates of U.S. Companies
[Millions of dollars]
1986 1987 1988
Sales by foreign affiliates
Total 82,622 97,455 111,47
To affiliated persons 19,611 22,910 24,026
To unaffiliated persons 63,011 74,545 87,121
To U.S. persons 9,774 10,444 10,413
To U.S. parents 7,916 8,409 8,042
To unaffiliated U.S. persons 1,857 2,035 2,371
To foreign persons 72,849 87,011 100,733
To other foreign affiliates 11,695 14,501 15,983
To unaffiliated foreign persons 61,154 72,510 84,750
Local sales 60,737 72,681 85,429
To other foreign affiliates 4,887 5,473 6,781
To unaffiliated foreigners 55,850 67,208 78,648
Sales to other countries 12,111 14,331 15,304
To other foreign affiliates 6,808 9,028 9,202
To unaffiliated foreigners 5,303 5,302 6,102
Sales by U.S. affiliates
Total n.a. 66,305 72,657
To U.S. persons n.a. 66,553 68,678
To foreign persons n.a. 3,752 3,979
To the foreign parent group n.a. 1,634 1,978
To foreign affiliates n.a. 187 167
To other foreigners n.a. 1,930 1,834
n.a. Not available Note. - Sales of services in this table are
those characteristic of the following: Industries in the
"services" division of the Standard Industrial Classification;
finance (except banking), insurance, and real estate; agricultural,
mining, and petroleum services; and transportation, communication, and
public utilities. The exclusion of banking reflects the limitation of
the data to nonbanks, not a judgment that banking is not a service. Data
for foreign affiliates include, and data for U.S. affiliates exclude,
investment income included in operating revenues of finance and
insurance companies.
Sales by foreign affiliates
Worldwide sales of services by non-bank majority-owned foreign
affiliates (MOFA's) were $111.1 billion in 1988. Nearly 80 percent,
or $87.1 billion, of these sales were to unaffiliated persons, mainly
foreign persons. Of the $24.0 billion in sales of services to affiliated
persons, one-third of the sales were to U.S. parents, and two-thirds
were to other foreign affiliates of the same U.S. parent as that of the
affiliate making the sale.
By location of customer, nearly 10 percent of sales of services by
MOFA's were to U.S. persons, mainly U.S. parents. The remainder
were to foreign - mainly unaffiliated - persons. This section focuses on
these sales to foreign persons, which represent sales delivered by U.S.
companies to foreign markets through the channel of direct investment.
These sales are shown by country in table 12 and by industry of
affiliate by country in table 13. Table 12. - Sales of Services to
Foreign Persons by Nonbank Majority-Owned Foreign Affiliates of U.S.
Companies, by Country of Affiliates
[Millions of dollars]
1986 1987 1988
All countries 72,849 87,011 100,733
Canada 13,655 15,750 16,876
Europe 36,030 43,859 52,094
Belgium 1,515 1,918 2,107
France (D) 5,318 6,147
Germany, Federal Republic of 4,887 6,065 7,088
Italy 2,026 (D) (D)
Netherlands 5,213 6,067 6,798
Norway 368 392 413
Spain 887 1,145 (D)
Sweden 589 719 (D)
Switzerland 1,677 2,169 2,691
United Kingdom 13,121 15,612 19,395
Other (D) (D) (D)
Latin America and other Western
Hemisphere 6,931 8,379 8,248
South and Central America 2,654 3,036 3,518
Argentina 414 389 375
Brazil 719 988 1,349
Mexico 462 519 (D)
Venezuela 730 775 (D)
Other 730 775 (D)
Other Western Hemisphere 4,277 5,343 4,730
Bermuda 2,779 (D) 3,458
Other 1,498 (D) 1,272
Other countries 11,703 14,855 18,636
Africa 938 771 (D)
South Africa 258 159 116
Other 680 612 (D)
Middle East 1,130 1,185 (D)
Israel (D) (D) (D)
Saudi Arabia (D) (D) 620
Other (D) (D) (D)
Asia and Pacific 9,635 12,899 (D)
Australia 2,523 3,198 3,846
Hong Kong 1,462 1,510 1,770
India 19 15 12
Indonesia 138 147 177
Japan 4,217 6,080 8,410
Korea, Republic of 114 118 137
Malaysia 87 224 (D)
New Zealand 169 238 316
Philippines 238 255 262
Singapore 380 (D) (D)
Taiwan 176 261 398
Other 203 (D) (D)
International 4,530 4,168 4,879
Addenda:
European Communities (12) 32,733 39,759 47,323
Eastern Europe 0 0 0
(*) Less than $500,000. (D) Suppressed to avoid disclosure of data of
individual companies.
Sales to foreign persons. - Of the $100.7 billion in sales of
services by MOFA's to foreign persons, sales in the country of the
affiliate (local sales) accounted for 85 percent and sales to other
foreign (non-U.S.) countries for 15 percent. The preponderance of local
sales reflects the need for many services businesses to serve their
customers from a nearby location. Over 90 percent of the sales to other
foreign countries were by affiliates located in either Europe (and thus
possibly "local" in the sense that they may have been mainly
to neighboring European countries) or "other Western
Hemisphere." The sales by "other Western Hemisphere"
affiliates were accounted for largely by offshore finance and insurance
affiliates engaged in activities that do not require a local presence.
For example, these affiliates may serve as a location for booking
transactions with other parts of the multinational firms to which they
belong; in addition, their revenues probably include a substantial
amount of income on investments made in other countries. (As explained
earlier, sales of services by foreign affiliates include investment
income of affiliates in finance and insurance.)
Affiliates in Europe accounted for $52.1 billion, or over 50
percent, of MOFA's sales of services to foreign persons in 1988
(table 12). Sales by affiliates in the United Kingdom, at $19.4 billion,
were by far the largest; sales by affiliates in West Germany, the
Netherlands, and France also were large - $6 billion to $7 billion each.
Among other countries, sales to foreign persons were largest for
MOFA's in Japan ($8.4 billion), "international" ($4.9
billion), Australia ($3.8 billion), and Bermuda ($3.5 billion).(15)
By industry, the largest portion of sales of services by
MOFA's to foreign persons was accounted for by affiliates
classified in the "services" division of the Standard
Industrial Classification (table 13.3). These sales were $27.7 billion
in 1988; affiliates in Europe accounted for 70 percent of them. Within
"services," sales to foreign persons were largest for
affiliates in computer and data-processing services and in "other
services." It should be noted that affiliates in computer and
data-processing services accounted for only part of the total sales of
these services; affiliates in machinery manufacturing (which includes
computer manufacturers) and wholesale trade (which includes distributors
of computers) also had substantial sales of such services.
Table : [Tabular Data Omitted]
After "services," sales by MOFA's to foreign persons
were largest in insurance, at $20.7 billion, and in finance (except
banking), at $15.1 billion. Both figures contain an unknown amount of
investment income, in addition to revenues for the performance of
services, and thus are not completely comparable with the figures for
other industries. In insurance, affiliates in three countries - Canada,
Japan, and the United Kingdom - accounted for over two-thirds of the
sales to foreign persons, which were mainly to unaffiliated customers in
the country of the affiliate. Sales by affiliates in "Latin America
and other Western Hemisphere" also were significant; captive offshore insurance affiliates, many in Bermuda, that provided casualty
insurance to other foreign affiliates of their U.S. parents accounted
for a substantial portion of these sales. In finance, about one-third of
the sales to foreign persons were by affiliates in the United Kingdom,
where deregulation has enabled foreign-owned firms to engage in a wider
variety of activities in recent years.
Affiliates in manufacturing accounted for $11.4 billion of sales of
services to foreign persons, and those in wholesale trade for $11.3
billion. In both cases, a large share of the sales were by affiliates of
U.S. computer manufacturers and were presumably accounted for mainly by
computer and data-processing services. European affiliates accounted for
about two-thirds of the sales in each industry.
Affiliates in petroleum had $7.2 billion in sales of services to
foreign persons. The services sold by these affiliates probably
consisted mainly of oil and gas field services and of petroleum
transportation. Of the $7.2 billion, $3.2 billion was by affiliates in
"international." Other industries with $1 billion or more in
sales of services to foreign persons were transportation ($4.3 billion),
real estate ($1.2 billion), and public utilities ($1.3 billion).
Sales by U.S. affiliates
Worldwide sales of services by nonbank majority-owned U.S.
affiliates (MOUSA's) in 1988 were $72.7 billion, considerably below
the $111.1 billion of sales by MOFA's. The two figures are not
completely comparable because of the difference in the treatment of
investment income; however, it appears that if this income could be
excluded from both data sets, MOFA's would still have larger sales
than MOUSA's.(16)
Of the $72.7 billion in sales of services by MOUSA's, 95
percent, or $68.7 billion, were to U.S. persons, and 5 percent, or $4.0
billion, were to foreign persons. The sales to foreign persons were
about evenly divided between sales to members of foreign parent groups
and sales to unaffiliated foreigners. Because it is relatively uncommon
for U.S. affiliates of foreign companies to have foreign affiliates of
their own, sales of services to such affiliates were very small.
The remainder of this section discusses MOUSA sales to U.S. persons
by country of ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) and by industry of
affiliate. (17) These sales represent deliveries of services by foreign
companies to the United States through the channel of direct investment.
Sales to U.S. persons. - Affiliates with European UBO's
accounted for $40.0 billion, or nearly 60 percent, of MOUSA sales to
U.S. persons (table 14). Among these affiliates, sales by affiliates
with British UBO's, at $19.5 billion, were by far the largest.
Sales by affiliates with Netherlands and Swiss UBO's ($6 billion
each) and with West German UBO's ($3.5 billion) also were large.
Outside Europe, sales by affiliates with UBO's in Canada ($16.3
billion), Japan ($4.3 billion), and Australia ($3.2 billion) were
largest.
Table : Table 14. - Sales of Services to U.S. Persons by Nonbank
Majority-Owned U.S. Affiliates of Foreign Companies, by Country of UBO
[Millions of dollars]
1987 1988
All countries 62,553 68,678
Canada 16,356 16,293
Europe 36,226 40,029
Belgium 111 55
France 1,830 1,949
Germany, Federal Republic of 3,113 3,545
Italy (D) 225
Netherlands 5,218 6,402
Norway (D) 225
Spain 18 18
Sweden 755 754
Switzerland 5,054 6,157
United Kingdom 18,713 19,490
Other (D) 1,208
Latin America and other Western Hemisphere 2,493 2,242
South and Central America 404 399
Argentina 7 7
Brazil 13 16
Mexico 184 120
Venezuela 33 33
Other 168 223
Other Western Hemisphere 2,088 1,844
Bermuda 1,325 984
Other 763 860
Other foreign countries 7,393 9,783
Africa 105 (D)
South Africa (D) 130
Other (D) (D)
Middle East 1,344 (D)
Israel 61 64
Saudi Arabia (D) 253
Other (D) (D)
Asia and Pacific 5,944 8,299
Australia 2,187 3,210
Hong Kong 487 566
India (*) (*)
Indonesia 3 3
Japan 3,097 4,332
Korea, Republic of (D) 21
Malaysia 13 13
New Zealand 31 41
Philippines 34 38
Singapore 32 (D)
Taiwan 1 1
Other (D) (D)
United States 87 331
Addenda:
European Communities (12) 30,057 32,449
Eastern Europe (D) 11
* Less than $500.000 D Suppressed to avoid disclosure of data of
individual companies. UBO Ultimate beneficial owner
In interpreting the information in table 15 on the industry
distribution of sales of services to U.S. persons, it should be kept in
mind that the data are classified by industry of affiliate, not by type
of service. As noted earlier, this classification probably provides a
better guide to the types of services sold by foreign affiliates than it
does to those sold by U.S. affiliates. U.S. affiliates in
goods-producing industries accounted for a majority of sales of services
outside the primary industries of the affiliates making the sales.
Although these sales to U.S. persons cannot be classified by type of
service, it appears, judging from information on the composition of
total sales that affiliates report for industry coding purposes, that if
they could be, the sales would be redistributed to several other
industries, especially insurance, and gas field services and other
petroleum services), equipment rental, and real estate.
By industry, sales of services to U.S. persons by affiliates in
insurance, at $28.2 billion, were far larger than those by affiliates in
any other industry and accounted for over 40 percent of the total for
all industries combined in 1988 (table 15.2). Premium income accounted
for most of these sales, nearly 60 percent of which were by affiliates
with UBO's in Canada and the United Kingdom. By type of insurance,
life insureres - most of them with Canadian UBO's - accounted for
the majority of the sales. Property and casualty insurers accounted for
most of the remainder. Foreign investment in property and casualty
insurance has expanded in recent years, as the industry has become more
internationally oriented and as some foreign insurance companies have
established or acquired affiliates in the United States in order to
service the U.S. affiliates of clients in their home countries. Sales by
affiliates in accident and health insurance were very small, perhaps
reflecting differences between the United States and the major potential
investing countries in methods of financing the delivery of health care.
After insurance, sales by MOUSA's were largest in
"services" ($13.3 billion) and real estate ($8.4 billion).
Over 30 percent of the sales in "services" were by affiliates
with British UBO's. By industry within "services," sales
to U.S. persons were largest for affiliates in "other
services" ($3.8 billion), hotels and other lodging places ($2.4
billion), and advertising ($1.9 billion). In "other services,"
affiliates that provide building cleaning and maintenance services
accounted for almost one-third of the sales; sales by affiliates that
provide temporary employment services, amusement and recreation
services, auto rental, and security services also were substantial. For
both "other services" and advertising, sales by affiliates
with British UBO's were largest. For hotels and lodging places,
sales by affiliates with Japanese UBO's were largest.
A large share of the sales by real estate affiliates represents
rental income of developers of commercial property, particularly office
buildings in major urban areas. Sales by affiliates with Canadian
UBO's were considerably larger than those by affiliates with
UBO's in any other country, possibly reflecting the value that
proximity to the property owned or managed offers to investors in real
estate. Sales by affiliates with British UBO's were next largest.
In both manufacturing and transportation, affiliates' sales of
services to U.S. persons were about $5 billion. In manufacturing, over
40 percent of the sales were accounted for by affiliates with British
UBO's. These sales include insurance, oil and gas field services,
computer and data-processing services (sold by computer manufacturers),
research and development, and equipment rental.
In transportation, most of the sales were by small regional
railroads, trucking companies, and companies providing warehousing or
related services, such as freight forwarding and containerization. Sales
by affiliates providing air or water transportation were small, probably
because of U.S. restrictions on foreign participation in these
industries. [18] UBO's in Canada and the United Kingdom accounted
for about one-half of the $4.8 billion in sales. (16.) This statement is
based on available information showing that if the $18.5 billion in
investment income included in total sales by MOUSA's were added to
sales of services by MOUSA's, the resulting sum -- $91.1 billion --
falls short of the $111.1 billion in sales of services by MOFA's.
In addition, for industries other than finance and insurance for which
no significant comparability problem exists, sales of services by
MOUSA's -- at $40.1 billion -- are considerably lower than sales of
services by MOFA's -- at $68.9 billion. (17.) An ultimate
beneficial owner of a U.S. affiliate is that person, proceeding up the
affiliate's ownership chain beginning with and including the
foreign parent, that is not owned more than 50 percent by another
person. (18.) In the United States, coastal and inland shipping by water
is restricted to domestic carriers, and the foreign ownership share of a
U.S. airline is limited to 25 percent. (Foreign airlines have facilities
in the United States, such as ticket offices and terminal facilities,
that provide services only to their foreign owners, but such facilities
are not considered U.S. affiliates for the purposes of BEA surveys.)