The outsourcing effect: What is a "good" and what is a "service", actually?

Is outsourcing part of the reasons that the French said no to the EU Treaty in Many 2005 (or fear of the "Polish plumber"?)

What are the externalities of the outsourcing of call centers from the UK to English speaking Asia? Of East EUropean house painters flying in to do a job in the UK or Belgium and then flying back home?

Is the outsourcing of IT services and other services from the US to Asia a source of the instability of the recovery of the US economy?

We do live in a world where services are covering a much larger piece of the total GNP/GDP pie.

Where free trade of goods and movement of capital are at historical levels (if you factor out the current crisis)

So:

Is there a difference between trade in goods and in services?

What are "trade-able" or exportable or "outsource-able" services"?

Is the world prepared to deal with outsourcing of work rather than import of goods?

Why do some EUropeans (and others) seem more afraid of outsourcing of services than of imports of goods?

Is there an implied assumption that whereas it is "OK" for non-OECD countries to export goods to OECD ones, it is "not OK" to "export" services? If yes, why?

What is a "good" and what is a "service", in today's reality?

What is, in essence, the difference?

Written: June 1, 2005
Updated: Sept. 29, 2009