**_Global Value Chains in the Electronics Industry                       Sturgeon and Kawakami_**

**Table 2** Top-15 Intermediate Goods Importers and Exporters in the Electronics Industry, 2006

|**Electronics**<br>**intermediate**<br>**importers**|**US$,**<br>**millions**|**% of**<br>**total**|**Percentage**<br>**change**<br>**1988–2006**|**Electronics**<br>**intermediate**<br>**exporters**|**US$,**<br>**millions**|**% of**<br>**total**|**Percentage**<br>**change**<br>**1991–2006**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|China|186,294|18.9|15219.0|China|109,433|11.7|21649.1|
|HongKong, China|104,856|10.6|1452.2|HongKong, China|101,873|10.9|2580.0|
|United States|94,466|9.6|194.0|United States|101,807|10.9|179.4|
|Singapore|73,040|7.4|590.5|Singapore|97,278|10.4|942.2|
|Germany|51,569|5.2|236.3|Japan|88,994|9.5|160.8|
|Japan|45,639|4.6|422.5|Taiwan, China|63,824|6.8|834.0|
|Malaysia|44,695|4.5|466.8|Korea, Rep. of|55,028|5.9|543.2|
|Taiwan, China|35,899|3.6|405.6|Germany|52,685|5.7|235.5|
|Mexico|35,705|3.6|3048.9|Malaysia|43,966|4.7|512.9|
|Korea, Rep. of|35,486|3.6|365.8|Netherlands|30,637|3.3|520.2|
|Netherlands|26,868|2.7|392.9|United Kingdom|22,538|2.4|121.1|
|Philippines|23,685|2.4|1052.6|Philippines|22,024|2.4|1186.4|
|United Kingdom|23,130|2.3|79.5|France|19,148|2.1|131.3|
|France|19,577|2.0|118.8|Thailand|15,756|1.7|438.6|
|Thailand|18,607|1.9|423.3|Mexico|13,115|1.4|3594.1|

_Source:_ UN Comtrade Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) Rev. 1 data. To identify commodities as Consumption, Capital, and Intermediate goods, the conversion table Broad Economic Category (BEC) to SITC Rev. 1 from World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) was used. In order to calculate constant price data, National Accounts data from United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Statistics Unit and a GDP deflator were applied.

While the importance of the electronics industry in GVC formation is undeniable, note that the trade statistics presented here contain no information about trade in services or the ownership of physical or intellectual assets. As a result, GVCs can exist without strong growth in intermediate goods trade.<sup>4</sup> Nevertheless, while current trade statistics cannot capture the more

> 4 For example, in the automotive industry a pattern of regional production has been intensifying since the mid-1980s for both political and technical reasons. This has undoubtedly dampened trade in both final and intermediate goods. Nevertheless, global integration has proceeded at the level of buyer-supplier relationships, especially between automakers and their largest suppliers, which have plants in multiple regions. As a result, local, national, and regional value chains in the automotive industry are “nested” within the global organizational structures and business relationships of the largest firms (Sturgeon, Van Biesebroeck, and Gereffi 2008). These relationships structure not only the flow of physical goods, but also the flow of information, instructions, payments, and investment that characterize GVC development. The stable share of automotive parts in total manufactured intermediate goods trade, despite the establishment of dozens of final assembly plants in developing countries over the period (Sturgeon and Florida, 2004), probably reflects the strong drive for local content in this industry, both for regulatory and operations reasons (see Sturgeon, Van Biesebroeck, and Gereffi (2008) for an extended discussion). Similarly, apparel GVCs are highly dynamic, extensive, and robust, even though inputs (for example, fabric, fiber, and other footwear and apparel parts) make up a small fraction of total intermediate goods trade and none of the top 50. While the capacity to produce inputs and final products in developing countries has been growing strongly, orders are highly specific in terms of fabric and other accessories such as buttons and zippers.

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