International trade statistics under the current international guideline of the System of National Accounts (SNA) record gross flows of goods and services each time they cross a border. Over the last several decades, the world’s economy has experienced tremendous globalization. Production and international trade of goods and services have been increasingly linked to global value chains (GVCs), which has significantly changed the nature and structure of international trade, especially with growing intermediate goods trade. Globalization has led to increasingly complicated supply chains as intermediate goods (raw materials, for example) move strategically throughout the world as they are transformed step by step into final goods sold to end users. Existing data on gross trade flows continue to answer many important questions about the global economy; however, the growth of GVCs means that additional data are necessary for a more complete and more nuanced understanding of global trade.
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Page last modified on 8/15/25