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Section III: Global Services Trade

The United States was the world’s largest cross-border exporter of commercial services in 2024, supplying 12.8 percent of the total $8.8 trillion in global services exports. Other leading services exporters were the United Kingdom (7.4 percent), Ireland (5.9 percent), Germany (5.3 percent), and China (5.1 percent) (figure 7).

A pie chart titled “Global services: cross-border exports of commercial services, by country, 2024,” showing shares of a total of $8.8 trillion in global exports. “All other countries” account for the largest share at 43.8 percent. Other slices include: United States 12.8 percent, United Kingdom 7.4 percent, Ireland 5.9 percent, Germany 5.3 percent, China 5.1 percent, France 4.5 percent, Singapore 4.5 percent, India 4.3 percent, Netherlands 3.8 percent, and Japan 2.6 percent. Each country is represented by a differently colored segment.

The United States was the world’s largest cross-border importer of services in 2024, representing 10.2 percent of the total $8.0 trillion in global services imports.1 Other leading importers of commercial services included China (7.6 percent), Germany (6.9 percent), Ireland (5.8 percent), and the United Kingdom (5.0 percent) (figure 8).

A pie chart titled “Global services: cross-border imports of commercial services, by country, 2024,” showing shares of a total of $8.0 trillion in global imports. “All other countries” make up the largest portion at 45.6 percent. Other country shares include: United States 10.2 percent, China 7.6 percent, Germany 6.9 percent, Ireland 5.8 percent, United Kingdom 5.0 percent, Singapore 4.4 percent, France 4.3 percent, Netherlands 3.8 percent, India 3.4 percent, and Japan 3.0 percent. Each country is represented by a distinct colored slice.

1 Global aggregates for commercial services are compiled from various national balance-of-payments statistics that differ in coverage, valuation, and estimation practices and are supplemented by WTO/United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates. Because these methodological differences produce normal asymmetries, global exports and imports do not balance; see WTO, Technical Notes, section 1.1.2, “Trade in Commercial Services,” 2023.