NEW APPROACH IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE ANALYSIS DUE TO INTERNATIONAL FACTOR MOVEMENTS

Abstract

Nowadays not only goods and services move across national borders but factors of production also. Firms deliver goods and services to foreign markets more through their foreign direct investment operations (foreign affiliates) than through traditional forms of international trade, like export. Labour is also moving from one country to another and that replaces the need for trade in services. The activities of transnational enterprises caused the main distortions in the gathering and analysing of statistical data on international trade, so traditional foreign trade statistics are not longer a good framework for the analysis of international trade flows. New approach in international trade analysis must include new forms of indirect export of goods and services on international markets – sales through foreign affiliates and the movement of labour across national borders. New statistical tools are Foreign Affiliates Trade Statistics (FATS) and Value-Added trade recording that represent a solid base for facilitating economic policy decisions.