The scope for E-Commerce in central and eastern European countries' services trade

The general attitude on the potential for e-commerce in services trade is rather enthusiastic and emphasises extraordinary opportunities for its expansion. The Internet extends the scope of services, which are tradable and transforms local services into internationally tradable ones. This article argues that countries which rely on high quality e-tradable services are in a better position to take advantage of e-commerce in services trade than those, which rely on location-bound services. It is examined to what extent the characteristics of central and eastern European countries' services export portfolio determine the potential of these countries for the expansion of services exports through e-commerce.