The Services Trade Dimension of Global Value Chains: Policy Implications for Commonwealth Developing Countries and Small States

This paper considers in detail the various factors that drive competitiveness in services, a critical but often overlooked part of the global value chain, and the policy levers available to influence them. Services play a key role in enabling the development of value chains in goods, through transport, telecoms, logistics etc., and are now creating global value chains in their own right. In value-added terms, services now account for nearly half of world trade, yet too few Commonwealth developing countries are taking advantage of the new opportunities available. The paper concludes with a number of policy recommendations to increase country participation in the services aspects of global value chain activity.