Global Value Chains Prove Resilient as WTO Launches 2025 Report on Rewiring GVCs

The report’s Editor-in-Chief, Robert Koopman—former WTO Chief Economist—presented its key findings alongside Albert Park, Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank.

Global value chains (GVCs) have demonstrated remarkable resilience despite escalating geopolitical tensions, climate pressures, financial instability, and the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the central finding of the GVC Development Report 2025, launched at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 15 December.

Speaking at the launch in Geneva, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala highlighted that global production networks remain a cornerstone of international trade. “This new report has reaffirmed something we at the WTO have been saying: globalization is far from over, and global value chains remain indispensable,” she said. Although GVC participation dipped slightly from a 2022 peak of 48% to 46.3% in 2023, Okonjo-Iweala stressed that firms and governments are reconfiguring—not abandoning—global integration.

This evolution aligns with the WTO’s vision of “re-globalization”: a modernized form of globalization aimed at diversifying supply chains and integrating economies historically excluded from global production.

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About the Report and Its Contributors

The 2025 report—titled GVC Development Report: Rewiring GVCs in a Changing Global Economy—is the fifth in a biennial series. It is jointly produced by:

• Asian Development Bank (ADB)

• Research Institute for Global Value Chains (UIBE, China)

• Institute of Developing Economies – JETRO (Japan)

• World Economic Forum

• WTO Secretariat

Together, these institutions provide a comprehensive, data-driven assessment of how global value chains are transforming in response to economic, technological, environmental, and political shifts.

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Key Findings: How GVCs Are Being “Rewired”

The report finds that GVCs are undergoing restructuring across four major dimensions:

1. Geographic Reconfiguration

Firms are diversifying suppliers and production locations while maintaining global networks rather than reshoring operations entirely.

2. Technological Transformation

Digitalization, automation, AI, and advanced robotics are reshaping production methods and enabling more distributed manufacturing.

3. Governance Innovation

Governments are adopting targeted industrial policies and new forms of issue-focused trade agreements.The report identifies 180+ agreements signed by 2024 dealing with digital trade, critical minerals, and supply chain security—indicating a shift away from traditional, broad regional trade deals.

4. Environmental Restructuring

Green investment, carbon pricing, and climate-aligned supply chain standards are becoming core features of global production planning.

Although the report’s primary dataset covers developments up to end-2024, preliminary 2025 data shows that global trade growth has remained robust despite rising policy uncertainty and tariff changes introduced in 2025.

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Challenges: Trade Costs, Uncertainty, and Inequality

Director-General Okonjo-Iweala cautioned that policy-driven increases in trade costs, as well as growing geopolitical tensions, are especially harmful for developing regions that lack strong multinational investment footprints. She also highlighted the severe shortfall in global trade finance—over US$1 trillion per year—as a continuing barrier for small and emerging economies.

These obstacles contribute to a worrying trend: the benefits of GVC reconfiguration are accruing primarily to countries already established as major suppliers, leaving behind nations trying to break into global production networks.

“To make GVCs more diversified and resilient, we must be creative in overcoming such obstacles,” she said.

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Governance Cooperation: Emerging, Flexible, and Issue-Focused

The report finds that even as traditional trade negotiations slow, governance cooperation has not diminished. Instead, it is shifting to:

• informal, non-binding partnerships

• issue-specific agreements

• coalitions focused on technology, climate, and strategic minerals

Such arrangements help create predictability and trust in an environment of rapidly evolving supply chain risks.

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Launch Event and Thought Leadership

The report’s Editor-in-Chief, Robert Koopman—former WTO Chief Economist—presented its key findings alongside Albert Park, Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank. Panels featuring the report’s authors, business leaders, and government officials explored practical implications for global industries and policy sectors.

Closing comments were delivered by Zhao Zhongxiu, President of UIBE, and Fukunari, President of IDE-JETRO, both underscoring the importance of collaborative, evidence-based policy making in reshaping global production systems.