New value-added trade data adds value to our understanding of Asia

New value-added trade data adds value to our understanding of Asia

February, 2013
Christopher Findlay
The future of manufacturing in developed economies, and the scope for digital technology to provide new life for that sector, has received increasing attention as production moves to low-wage countries and as the manufacturing process becomes more fragmented. A new data set on the nature of world manufacturing trade in goods and services released by the OECD and the WTO this month suggests the real complexity of this story and the importance for policy makers of understanding global value chains. This new data set will have particular relevance across Asia, and especially East Asia, where manufacturing is already heavily organised around value chains.