The development of China’s service trade YearTotalExportsImportsBalance

PeriodTotal (%)Export (%)Import (%) Table : The average growth rate of China ’ s trade in services in different periods

Year Total Transportation Travel Communication services Construction services Table: China ’ s trade balance in services from 1999 through 2009 (billion U.S. Dollars)

Insurance services Financial services Computer & information services Royalties & license fees Consulting Advertising, media Film, audiovisual Other business services

The category proportions of China’s service trade

From 1999 to 2010 the category proportions of China’s service trade changed. The percentage of transportation, construction services, insurance services, computer and information services, consulting, advertising and media, film and audiovisual in China’s service export rose to 20.1%, 8.5%, 1.0%, 5.4%, 13.4%, 1.7%, 0.1% in 2010 from 9.2 %, 3.8%, 0.8%, 1.0%, 1.1%, 0.8%, 0.0% in In the same period, the percentage of travel and communication services saw a downward trend, dropping from 53.9%, 2.3% in 1999 to 26.9%, 0.7% in 2010, respectively.

The proportion of transportation, insurance services, computer & information services, royalties and license fees, consulting, advertising and media, film and audiovisual in China’s service import increased from 25.5%, 6.2%, 0.7%, 2.6%, 1.7%, 0.7 %, 0.1% in 1999 to 32.9%, 8.1%, 1.5%, 6.8%, 7.9%, 1.1%, 0.2% in The proportion of travel and construction services in China’s service import dropped from 35.1%, 5.0% in 1999 to 28.5%, 2.6% in 2010, respectively.

Compared with OECD countries, structural imbalance of China's service trade is still a serious problem, which was mainly caused by excessive growth of transportation services, although China's service trade has achieved a rapid growth in recent years. The rapid growth of transportation services is corresponded with the rapid development of China's merchandise trade and is determined by China's current phase of development. The three biggest categories of China's service trade are transportation, travel and other business services, whose proportion in China’s trade in services is significantly higher than that in OECD countries’ trade in services. The proportions of insurance services, financial services, royalties and license fees in China's service trade are very low, although they are the typical modern service industries. This reflects that China’s technology-, capital-, knowledge-based service industries are still comparatively weak and China should improve international competitiveness of these service industries.