Working Groups

The international statistical community created many task teams or working groups either to solve specific problems like goods for processing abroad or to revise the classification of broad economic categories, or to advance the work on more general issues.

These working groups can be roughly divided into three categories which are in line with the scheme of the infrastructure of statistical information:

  • International Trade and related Economic Statistics
  • Accounting Framework for Trade and Macroeconomic Issues
  • Indicators for International Trade and Economic Globalization

Working Groups

International Trade and related Economic Statistics

Trade and business statistics have common features starting with the fact that in the end the businesses are the ones making decisions on trading internationally and on making other kinds of international business arrangements, such as FDI, establishing foreign affiliates and outsourcing of business functions. These statistics include international merchandise trade statistics, statistics of international trade in services, foreign affiliates statistics, and foreign direct investment statistics; and links trade and business statistics to gain insights into the impact of globalization on competitiveness, employment, innovation and economic success.

Accounting Framework for Trade and Macro-economic Issues

Starting from the measurement framework of the System of National Accounts, this part clarifies the measurement of the international economic dimension of the SNA, especially to measure economic interdependencies of nations, their exposures and vulnerabilities. The international accounts for an economy summarize the economic relationships between residents of that economy and the rest of the world. Many international task teams are working on aspects of international trade and economic globalization, but an overarching framework is still missing.

Indicators for International Trade and Economic Globalisation

Indicators which have been developed within the context of trade in value-added are, for instance, the import content of exports, value-added induced by export, or value-added induced by unit of export. Indicators help to identify the value-added of international trade, in particular the contribution of global value chains to economic growth, employment, productivity, labor compensation, research and development, and technological innovation. These indicators shed new light on financial, technological and trade interdependencies.