The Role of Services in Global Value Chains

For the past decades international production, trade and investments have been increasingly organized within global value chains (GVCs), where different stages of production process are allocated across different countries. Comprehension of global value chains is important for understanding trade and globalization processes in the world and for defining policies that will help countries increase their benefits from international trade. This paper analyses the role of services in international trade through the lens of global value chains (GVCs). Services account for more than 70 % of world GDP but only for around 20 % of world trade in balance of payments terms. In value added terms, accounting for services embodied in exported goods, services account for 40 % of world trade.