5 Ways global trade has changed over the past 20 years
Published in
2 min readApr 12, 2019
By Susan Lund
There’s a lot more going on with global trade than what you see in the headlines. The McKinsey Global Institute’s recent report takes an in-depth look at 23 different industry value chains spanning 43 countries — and it finds some trends that might surprise you:
- A smaller share of goods is now being traded across borders as China and other emerging markets consume more of what they make and develop their own domestic supply chains.
- Less than 20% of goods trade today is based on companies seeking the lowest wages around the world.
- Goods trade is becoming more intraregional as companies build regional supply chains near their key consumer markets.
- Global value chains are becoming more knowledge-intensive, emphasizing R&D and innovation.
- Traded services and cross-border data flows are growing much faster than trade in goods.
These shifts suggest that different sets of countries and workers stand to benefit from the next era of globalization. Download our full report, “Globalization in transition: the future of trade and value chains” to learn more.
Susan Lund is a partner of the McKinsey Global Institute. This article was originally published on LinkedIn.
