The Task Force was formed at the request of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and UNCTAD to the Statistical Commission in 1994. The objectives of the Task Force were to elaborate the statistical requirements of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

The Task Force is convened by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and consists of members of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Tourism Organization (WTO/OMT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO/OMC).

Until 2002, the work of Task Force focused on the development of the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services (MSITS), which was approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2002. The Manual sets out a statistical framework for the collection and dissemination of Trade in Services data.