Foreword

Any discussion today of international trade and investment policy that fails to acknowledge the centrality of global value chains (GVCs) would be considered outmoded and of questionable relevance. The idiom might vary – referring to trade in value-added, production sharing, supply chains, outsourcing, offshoring, vertical integration, or fragmented production instead of GVCs – but the core notion of internationally joined-up production is the same. Every international agency dealing with economic affairs as well as many governments are working on various aspects of GVCs in order to understand better their various dimensions. The central concern from this quarter, of course, is what GVCs mean for trade policy and for international cooperation in trade-related matters.