Taiwan lags far behind major trade rivals China, Japan and South Korea in exports of commercial services, according to a commercial services trade report released on Friday.
Taiwan’s exports of commercial services stood at US$11.72 billion in the first quarter of this year, ranking 26th among more than 130 economies around the world, said the report, compiled by the WTO and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
That left Taiwan far behind China, which ranked sixth worldwide, with commercial services exports of US$43.74 billion in the first quarter, and Japan, which ranked seventh, with exports of US$38.91 billion. India and Hong Kong were ranked eighth and ninth, with exports of US$37.7 billion and US$31.17 billion respectively. South Korea came 14th, with exports of US$26.07 billion.
Thailand ranked one notch above Taiwan, with US$11.99 billion in first-quarter commercial services exports, according to the report. Commercial services refer to the services (excluding government services) a company must purchase to maintain its normal operations.
Under the WTO classification, they cover the fields of law, accounting, taxation, engineering, computer services, innovation and design, leasing, real-estate advertising and management consulting.
According to preliminary estimates by the WTO and UNCTAD, global exports of commercial services rose by 3 percent year-on-year (balance-of-payments basis, current price, not seasonally adjusted) in the first quarter of the year. In terms of imports of the services in the first quarter, Taiwan ranked 25th worldwide at US$10.84 billion, behind China (fifth, US$61.72 billion) and Japan (sixth, US$41.12 billion). Other regional economies outpacing Taiwan in importing commercial services were India (eighth, US$33.12 billion), Singapore (10th, US$27.57 billion), South Korea (11th, US$26.72 billion) and Hong Kong (21st, US$14.06 billion).
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