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20.63. BEA recognizes in its reports that there are differences in coverage that make comparisons of services supplied through affiliates to resident/non-resident transactions imprecise.[3] However, the large gap between resident/non-resident transactions and services supplied through affiliates indicates the importance of such services as a channel through which enterprises sell services to foreign markets. This could be due to the fact that selling through locally established affiliates is the only practical method of delivery for many types of services because of the need for proximity in both time and space between the consumer and the producer. In addition to coverage differences, precise comparisons of the relative size of the two modes of delivery cannot be made for specific types of services because the data on cross-border trade are classified by type of service, whereas the data on sales of services through affiliates are classified by the primary industry of the affiliate. An example of the data release on the United States international supply of services is provided in table 20.4.
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