At the core of globalization in the 21st century is the growth of supply chains. It is a fact that over the last two decades, value chains have changed the old ways of organizing international specialization, of production and of understanding comparative advantages. They have changed the face of trade.

Practically all manufacturing activities and many service industries today are characterized by supply chain production, and nearly all supply chains embody an international dimension.

But up to now we lacked the necessary statistical tools to fully understand this new phenomenon. Traditional statistics, measuring trade in gross numbers, failed to give a clear picture of today's way of trading. They also failed in fully capturing the huge role played by services in manufacturing. Most importantly, they were not good enough in ensuring that trade policy is properly informed by what matters to people: jobs.