lower‐middle income countries in South Asia have become increasingly important in this GVC category, which is consistent with countries in this region achieving higher income levels.

# 3.2 Trends in Intra‐regional and Inter‐regional GVC Trade

Taking as a reference 2014, the most recent year for which satisfactory data are available, we note that aggregate GVC intra‐regional trade is the highest, by a large margin, in the East Asia & Pacific and Europe & Central Asia regions (Tables 1 and 2), and furthermore in the case of Europe & Central Asia, intra‐ regional GVC trade is also the highest in every single individual value chain, whereas South Asia displays the lowest degree of intra‐regional integration in all individual value chains (Figure 10). In terms of types of goods, the biggest intra‐regional GVC trade is observed in motor vehicles and electronics (Table 4), whereas it is interesting to note that it also occurs to a larger extent in intermediates than in final goods – especially in the case of intermediate electronics (Table 3).

# 3.3 Trends in GVC and Non‐GVC Imports and Exports by World Regions, Product

# Categories and Stages of Production

East Asia & Pacific, and to a lesser extent South Asia, are the only two world regions that stand as net exporters of GVC goods in year 2014, whereas all other regions are net importers of them (Tables 1 and 2); furthermore, East Asia & Pacific also stands out for being a net exporter in all GVC categories and South Asia in five of nine categories, thus posing a sharp contrast with all other world regions, which are net importers in most GVC categories or even all of them (Tables 5 and 6).<sup>16</sup> Exports of final motor vehicles are larger than imports in the same category both in Europe & Central Asia and Latin America & Caribbean, with the former region being as well a net exporter of the intermediate goods pertaining to such value chain and of intermediate apparel, whereas the latter is also a net exporter of final apparel. South Asia in turn is a net exporter of final apparel, final motor vehicles, final and intermediate footwear and final textiles. Finally, North America, Middle East & North Africa and Sub‐Saharan Africa are net importers in all nine GVC categories considered.

Tables 5 and 6 also show that, globally speaking, trade in electronics has exhibited the fastest growth during the last decade (growing around 12 percent annually both in the case of exports and imports), followed by trade in footwear (approximately 9 percent of annual growth) and motor vehicles (around 3 percent of annual growth), whereas trade in textiles and apparel has declined (approximately by 5 percent annually). More specifically, final footwear and intermediate electronics have exhibited the highest growth between 2004 and 2014, with exports and imports of such goods growing annually by around 36 percent, whereas final apparel has been the only category within the textiles and apparel value chain whose trade has not declined. On the contrary, trade in intermediate footwear, final textiles, intermediate apparel, and to a lesser extent also in intermediate products pertaining to the motor vehicles value chain, has been decreasing between 2004 and 2014 at rates ranging from around 2 percent to 17 percent annually, both in the case of exports and imports. Overall, trade in the analyzed GVCs has grown more 16 The subset of miscellaneous territories included in the “Other” exhibits GVC trade pattern more to those of East Asia & Pacific and South Asia, in the sense that it is as well mostly a net exporter, exhibiting a favorable trade balance in all but two GVC categories. The territories included in this “Other” category cannot be classified as belonging to any of the defined seven world regions, and comprise Antarctica, Bouvet Island, British Antarctic Territories, British Indian Ocean Territories, Bunkers, Fr. So. Ant. Tr., Free Zones, Heard Island and McDonald Island, Neutral Zone, South Georgia and the South Sandwich, Special Categories, Unspecified and Us Msc.Pac.I.

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