Global Value Chains Prove Resilient as Globalization Reorganizes Around Regions, Digitalization and Sustainability

Global value chains (GVCs) have been resilient in the face of rising geopolitical tensions, financial uncertainty, climate pressures and the COVID-19 pandemic according to the GVC Development Report 2025 launched at the WTO on 15 December. Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at the launch event that forward-thinking approaches are vital amid the ongoing shifts to ensure more people and economies are integrated into GVCs.

Context

· Report: GVC Development Report 2025: Rewiring GVCs in a Changing Global Economy

· Launch: 15 December 2025, WTO Geneva

· Partners: WTO Secretariat, Asian Development Bank (ADB), UIBE, IDE-JETRO, World Economic Forum

· Series: Fifth biennial report

Key Findings

· Resilience of GVCs:

o Despite geopolitical tensions, financial uncertainty, climate pressures, and COVID-19, GVCs remain robust.

o GVC trade share declined only slightly: 48% (2022 peak) → 46.3% (2024).

o Globalization continues, but is being reconfigured rather than reversed.

· Dimensions of Rewiring:

o Geographic reconfiguring – shifting production locations.

o Technological transformation – digitalization, automation.

o Governance innovation – new industrial policies, targeted trade agreements.

o Environmental restructuring – green investment, carbon pricing.

· Challenges Identified:

o Rising trade costs and policy uncertainty.

o Persistent trade finance shortages exceeding US $1 trillion annually.

o Benefits of rewiring concentrated in already established supplier countries, leaving marginalized regions behind.

Governance & Cooperation

· Shift from traditional bilateral/regional agreements to informal, issue-specific frameworks.

· Over 180 targeted trade deals signed by 2024, focusing on digital trade and critical minerals.

· These frameworks help build trust and predictability in the evolving governance landscape.

Outlook

· Data covers up to end-2024; early 2025 data shows robust trade growth despite tariff hikes.

· Report emphasizes “re-globalization” – diversifying GVCs to integrate more economies into the mainstream.

· Calls for creative solutions to overcome obstacles and ensure GVCs are more deconcentrated, diversified, and resilient.

Launch Event Highlights

· Remarks by DG Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stressing GVCs’ indispensability.

· Key findings presented by Robert Koopman (Editor-in-Chief) and Albert Park (ADB Chief Economist).

· Closing messages from UIBE President Zhao Zhongxiu and IDE-JETRO President Fukunari.

In essence: The 2025 GVC Report shows that global value chains are resilient but undergoing strategic rewiring—driven by technology, governance innovation, and sustainability. While established suppliers benefit most, the challenge ahead is to make GVCs more inclusive, diversified, and accessible to marginalized economies.

<GVC Development Report 2025>

<GVC Development Report 2025 Executive Summary>

[ABS News Service/16.12.2025]

"This new report has reaffirmed something we at the WTO have been saying: Globalization is far from over, and global value chains remain indispensable. The share of GVC trade in global total has declined only marginally from its 2022 peak of 48%, to 46.3% last year," DG Okonjo-Iweala said at the Geneva launch event for the publication titled "GVC Development Report 2025: Rewiring GVCs in a Changing Global Economy."

"Firms and governments are not retreating from global integration, but reconfiguring it to meet new economic, political, and social priorities. This goes in the same direction of what we have been pushing for under the banner of 're-globalization': a re-imagined globalization that helps to diversify global value chains and uses it to bring more economies that were on the margins of the global economy into the mainstream," DG Okonjo-Iweala said.

The report, the fifth in this biennial series, is a joint publication of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Research Institute for Global Value Chains at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), the Institute of Developing Economies - Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO), the World Economic Forum, and the WTO Secretariat.

It finds that the rewiring - or reorganizing - of GVCs is occurring through multiple dimensions: geographic reconfiguring; technological transformation through digitalization and automation; governance innovation through new industrial policies and new forms of targeted trade agreements; and environmental restructuring through green investment and carbon pricing mechanisms.

The data and evidence mainly cover up to the end of 2024 and pre-date recent tariff hikes and associated uncertainty in 2025; however, the report notes that data at the time of publication in December 2025 suggest that trade growth has remained robust.

"We have seen policy-driven increases in trade costs and a sharp increase in policy uncertainty. These are particularly burdensome for marginalized regions that lack an established track record of hosting multinational production," DG Okonjo-Iweala said, adding the persistent shortages of trade finance amounting to more than US $1 trillion annually as another challenge.

"Such factors add up and are a major reason why the report finds that the ongoing rewiring of GVCs has mostly benefited countries that were already established as suppliers. If GVCs are to become more deconcentrated, diversified, and resilient, we need to be more creative about overcoming such obstacles," she said.

"The report contains valuable lessons in this regard. It shows that governance cooperation has continued, though less in the form of traditional bilateral and regional agreements, viand by more informal, often non-binding, issue-specific frameworks. For instance, the report identifies more than 180 targeted trade deals with a focus on digital trade and critical minerals signed as of 2024. These arrangements can help build trust and predictability in the new governance landscape," DG Okonjo-Iweala said.

The report's editor-in-chief, former WTO Chief Economist Robert Koopman, presented the key findings of the report with ADB Chief Economist Albert Park. This was followed by discussion panels by the report's authors and sessions presenting perspectives from government officials and business leaders. UIBE President Zhao Zhongxiu and IDE-JETRO President Fukunari provided closing messages.