<p>Found a fairly nice one from <a href="https://data.oecd.org/trade/trade-in-goods-and-services.htm#indicator-chart" rel="nofollow noreferrer">OECD</a>. It includes combined trade in goods and services as a percentage of GDP. It is also possible to drill into goods only (which seems most commonly presented in the public domain) or services only data.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-18T15:19:47.177Z
So the answer to your question is that exports do include services and the question was based on a mistaken assumption?
Giskard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-19T12:42:51.230Z
It seems it is a fuzzy definition and normally what is meant by exports only includes hard products which is misleading.
A.L. Verminburger
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-20T22:23:23.067Z
@A.L.Verminburger Every definition of total exports I have seen includes services. As a result, this answer does seem to answer the question, and it would be best to mark the question as answered.
Brian Romanchuk
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-18T15:11:50.403Z
2018-06-18T15:11:50.403Z
A.L. Verminburger
<ul>
<li>Looking at country lists by exports.</li>
<li>Diving into exports always shows things like gas turbines, computer hardware, petrolium -- all physical things.</li>
<li>None show things like exporting services: financial services, engineering consulting, licensing software. I would imagine that would be a considerable component in countries like UK. In some countries medical tourism might bring considerable revenue.</li>
<li>If traditional export metric is for hard products only is there a metric that encompasses service export as well? And is there any data on account balance (export - inport) of countries with services included?</li>
</ul>

<balance-of-trade>
Why do exports include only hard products?
A.L. Verminburger
# Why do exports include only hard products?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-06-18)

* Looking at country lists by exports.
* Diving into exports always shows things like gas turbines, computer hardware, petrolium -- all physical things.
* None show things like exporting services: financial services, engineering consulting, licensing software. I would imagine that would be a considerable component in countries like UK. In some countries medical tourism might bring considerable revenue.
* If traditional export metric is for hard products only is there a metric that encompasses service export as well? And is there any data on account balance (export - inport) of countries with services included?

**Tags:** balance-of-trade


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2018-06-18. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

Found a fairly nice one from [OECD](https://data.oecd.org/trade/trade-in-goods-and-services.htm#indicator-chart). It includes combined trade in goods and services as a percentage of GDP. It is also possible to drill into goods only (which seems most commonly presented in the public domain) or services only data.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: So the answer to your question is that exports do include services and the question was based on a mistaken assumption?  
> **username_0**: It seems it is a fuzzy definition and normally what is meant by exports only includes hard products which is misleading.  
> **username_2**: @A.L.Verminburger Every definition of total exports I have seen includes services. As a result, this answer does seem to answer the question, and it would be best to mark the question as answered.  

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