III - ASEAN Trade in Services with West Germany

Summary

Among the three EC Central Banks which for the purpose of this study were prepared to release information on bilateral payments transactions in service sectors, the West German Bundesbank sources are the most disaggregated ones. This is due to the fact that – for statistical purposes only – West German commercial banks are legally obliged to report individual transborder payments/ receipts to the Central Bank if they exceed a relatively low threshold level. Of course, one doubts whether the reasons for transactions are correctly stated, especially if services are involved but to some extent such doubt is also valid with respect to merchandise trade. Besides the four basic service sectors, that is, travel, transport, insurance and other private services (OPS), information is available on some sub-sectors, especially on the important catch-all sector OPS, that is, business and financial services, but also on transport. Thus, in total, there are fifteen sub-sectors which the Bundesbank classifies as services. They are all non- factor services excluding income from short- and long-term capital movements and also income of guest workers. Labour remuneration listed under OPS refers to temporary employee contracts between residents and non-residents, for instance, in construction activities and consulting, and not to contracts with individuals (such as guest workers or receivers of an honorarium).

Major Findings

Tables Al - A10 provide a complete breakdown of exports and imports of services between West Germany and the five founding member states of ASEAN between 1971 and 1988. Tables All and A12 sum individual country data up to the ASEAN level. Incomes from capital transactions (factor services) are broken down under “Memo”. This additional information is provided in order to interpret the important link between foreign direct investments and services, both of which can be substituted as well as complemented by one another. Official services are disregarded as they they are quantitively negligible. They mostly include diplomatic and military services.