In recent years, concerns were raised about the shortcomings of the existing official trade statistics for the purpose of reflecting bilateral economic relations. The high level of import content in exports makes gross bilateral trade statistics unsuitable for bilateral trade negotiations. Trade analysis requires new measures which better reflect the level of interdependencies among countries engaged in global value chains (GVCs). In order to understand the true nature of trade relationships, it is necessary to know what each country along a global value chain contributes to the value of a final product. In addition, it is important to understand how that contribution is linked to those of other suppliers in other countries coming before and after along the chain, and how much employment and income is generated through this value addition.
Within this context the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) in cooperation with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Trade Organization (WTO) and Eurostat are organizing an international conference on the measurement of trade and economic globalization.
The objective of this international conference is to discuss conceptual and practical ways of measuring trade and economic globalization, through the understanding of comprehensive statistical frame, global production and business practices, requirements and micro-data compilation for a global Supply-Use Table, firm heterogeneity and the impact of global production on national, regional and global economy. This international conference will bring together international and national experts in the compilation of trade, business or national account statistics and analysts/researchers who are interested in measuring trade and economic globalization.