Definition: Intra-community acquisitions of goods and services

Category: External trade

Intra-community acquisitions of goods covers the purchases of goods produced within the territory of the European Union by a resident of another Member State of the EU. Intra-community acquisitions of goods and services refers to the modified 6th VAT Directive. For services it covers the provisions of services within the national territory by a provider operating in another Member State.

It is useful to know the overall amount of imports of an enterprise (or of an industry or sub-industry) even if it is not broken down by product, since it allows one to gauge the degree of internationalisation which enterprises bring to the purchasing of products for resale or the purchasing of goods and services for ongoing operational purposes. It should be noted that the definition of imports includes imports of capital goods, although in general these can be expected to be small in relation to total current purchases.

As with exports, a distinction between trade in goods and in services is useful. It creates opportunities, since data on trade in goods are available from INTRASTAT or other sources outside the Community, to provide a better reconciliation of the various sources of foreign trade data.