‘Global value chains resilient, reconfiguring amid latest challenges’

By : Tobi Awodipe

Date: 17 December 2025 5:10am WAT

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Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Global value chains (GVCs) have been resilient in the face of rising geopolitical tensions, financial uncertainty, climate pressures and the COVID-19 pandemic, a 2025 report from the GVC Development launched at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) earlier in the week has revealed. Director-General, WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, noted that forward-thinking approaches were vital amid the ongoing shifts to ensure more people and economies are integrated into GVCs.

The report, titled: ‘GVC Development Report 2025: Rewiring GVCs in a changing Global Economy,’ Okonjo-Iweala said, had reaffirmed WTO’s position that globalisation was far from over and global value chains remained indispensable.

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.

Okonjo-Iweala explained that the share of GVC trade in global total had declined only marginally from its 2022 peak of 48 per cent to 46.3 per cent last year.

She added: “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-globalisation’: a re-imagined globalisation that helps to diversify GVCs and uses it to bring more economies that were on the margins of the global economy into the mainstream,” she added.

“We have seen policy-driven increases in trade costs and a sharp increase in policy uncertainty. These are particularly burdensome for marginalised regions that lack an established track record of hosting multinational production,” the DG said, adding the persistent shortages of trade finance amounting to more than $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.

She emphasised that the report showed that governance cooperation had continued, though less in the form of traditional bilateral and regional agreements and by more informal, often non-binding, issue-specific frameworks.

“For instance, the report identifies over 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,” she added.

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