The article aims to present the position of the so-called clean services in the international trade. This category includes services that are registered in the balance of payments, on the current account. Other types of trade in services (sales via foreign branches, services provided by individuals) are not analysed in the article.

The article presents problems connected with the definition of a service and of the international trade in services, as well as consequences of the definitions adopted. The article goes on to analyse causes of a relatively small significance of services in the general worldwide turnover despite a high growth rate in the trade in services recorded for many years. The volume and growth of services trade in the last two decades was also discussed. Finally, the geographical structure of the trade in services and trade directions on the international level were examined.

It turns out that services are gaining significance not only due to their contribution to GDP and job creation in many countries, but also due to their share in the international trade. In the 19th and 20th centuries the world moved from the manufacturing-based economy to the services-based economy. It may be assumed that in the globalisation era the 21st century will be not only a century of services, but also a century of services exchanged on the international level. It follows for instance from more and more intensified contacts among people of various nationalities, which results to a large extent from the progress in communications. For the first time in history, the establishment of contacts across borders has become available to large social groups. International phone calls, fax and e-mail are no longer reserved solely to the businesspeople or the military. Each consumer has an easy access to them.

Technological progress helps offset these properties of services that made them difficult to exchange internationally (no possibility to store and transport, simultaneity of production and consumption). Thanks to telecommunications and IT technologies, services that have been unexchangeable at the international scale (e.g. education, medical services) can now cross national borders. Other (e.g. banking services) become tradable at a larger scale.