Most of the recently published empirical studies on the international trade in services in general (e.g., Stern & Hoekman 1986a and 1986b; Nusbaumer 1987, Arndt 1986; Langhammer 1989) and ASEAN trade in services in particular (Pang & Sundberg 1985; Praet 1985; Lee [Tsao] Yuan 1988; Lee & Naya 1988; Arndt 1989) have ended with two important qualifications: first, they deplored a significant lack of conceptual clarity in the sense that services as “invisibles” often escape from precise definitions and that the transborder movement of a service is unsatisfactorily determined by ownership of goods and residence of persons. Secondly, they dismissed the empirical basis as weak and sometimes even non-existent as many Central Banks do not keep detailed records on financial transactions between service-receiving and service-exporting countries handled by the commercial banks (e.g., in the case of the U.K. as the third largest exporter of services in the world). Sector-specific datasets such as transport or tourist statistics would offer no better alternative as they document volumes rather than income flows. While the first caveat cannot be avoided, more can be done with the second if endeavours are made to expand the empirical basis beyond the IMF Balance of Payments Statistics which do not disaggregate transborder payments for services by regions or partner countries.

This paper contributes to the existing sources by analysing data released by three EC member countries' Central Banks (Deutsche Bundesbank, Banque de France, De Nederlandsche Bank) on payments and receipts for services traded between West Germany, France, and the Netherlands on the one hand and the five founding member states of ASEAN on the other. Overall trade between the two groups of countries is expected to account for a non-neglible share in North-South trade in services as both groups hold leading positions as suppliers and purchasers of services.