International Services Surveys: BE-20 Benchmark Survey of Selected Services Transactions With Unaffiliated Foreign Persons

These final rules amend the reporting requirements for the BE- 20. Benchmark Survey of Selected Services Transactions with Unaffiliated Foreign Persons. The BE-20 benchmark survey is conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of Commerce, under the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act. It is taken once every five years. The last survey was conducted for 1991, and the next survey will be conducted for 1996. The BE-20 is a benchmark survey that is intended to cover the universe of selected U.S. services transactions with unaffiliated foreign persons. In nonbenchmark years, universe estimates of these transactions are derived from reported sample data by extrapolating forward the universe data collected in the BE-20 survey. The data are needed to support U.S. trade policy initiatives on international services and to compile the U.S. balance of payments and the national income and product accounts. The major change to the BE-20 benchmark survey contained in these rules is to expand its coverage to obtain data on additional types of services, to fill gaps in Government statistics on transactions in new, growing, and volatile international services categories. Transactions in the following types of services will be covered on the BE-20 for the first time: Merchanting services (sales only), financial services by firms that are not financial services providers (purchases only), operational leasing services, selling agent services, and ``other'' private services. ``Other'' private services consists of transactions in satellite photography, security, actuarial, salvage, oil spill and toxic waste cleanup, language translation, and account collection services. In addition, to reduce burden, BEA is eliminating several questions in the respondent identification section of the survey.