The United States remained the world's largest services market and also the world's leading exporter and importer of services in 2008, reports the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) in its publication Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, 2010 Annual Report.

The USITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, compiles the report annually. Each year's report presents a statistical overview of U.S. trade in services and highlights some of the service sectors and geographic markets that contribute substantially to recent services trade performance.

This year's report focuses primarily on infrastructure services and includes separate chapters on specific infrastructure service sectors (banking, electricity, insurance, retail, securities, and telecommunication services). These chapters analyze issues affecting global competitive conditions in the industry, examine recent trade performance, and summarize the impact on the industry of the global economic downturn.

The 2010 report covers trade in services from 2003 through 2008. Highlights of the report follow.

• The United States continues to have the largest services trade surplus of any country in the world. The U.S. services trade surplus grew to $161.4 billion in 2008, its highest level recorded to date. Infrastructure services play a significant role in U.S. services trade and accounted for 27 percent of U.S. cross-border services exports in 2008.

• Services supplied abroad by foreign affiliates of U.S. firms continue to exceed services supplied by foreign-owned affiliates in the United States, reaching $1.0 trillion and $677.8 billion, respectively, in 2007. Infrastructure services accounted for over half of services supplied in 2007, both by foreign affiliates of U.S. firms and by foreign-owned U.S. affiliates.

• In 2008, U.S. infrastructure services contributed $3.8 trillion, or 37 percent, to U.S. private-sector GDP. U.S. infrastructure service workers earned average wages higher than those earned by workers in the U.S. private sector as a whole and had higher average labor productivity (or output per employee) than that of the overall private sector.

• Several factors have created new opportunities for U.S. infrastructure service suppliers in overseas markets. Shifting economic conditions, technological advancements, and increased government regulation are just some of the factors which have influenced the operations of infrastructure service suppliers.

• The financial crisis and global economic downturn, which began in 2007, affected the operations of most infrastructure services to some degree. The financial crisis had a large effect on the banking and securities industries in particular, while other infrastructure industries were most affected by the subsequent economic downturn.

• The USITC's third annual services roundtable, which was held on December 2, 2009, and is summarized in the report, focused on the impact of services trade liberalization on employment. The discussion included the domestic employment effects of foreign direct investment in services, the role of small- and medium-sized enterprises in U.S. services trade, and the overall status of services trade liberalization.

Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, 2010 Annual Report (Investigation No. 332-345, USITC publication 4163, June 2010) is available on the USITC's Internet site at http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4163.pdf. A CD-ROM of the report may be requested by e-mailing pubrequest@usitc.gov, calling 202-205-2000, or writing the Office of the Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20436. Requests may also be faxed to 202-205-2104.