Global Supply Chains

The dramatic growth in global trade over the past century initially occurred mostly in terms of goods. As measured by goods exports, trade today is more than 33 times higher than in 1950.

In 1950, exports also made up 9.6% of global production and today approximately 25% of global production is exported. 

This trade in goods is supported by sophisticated global supply chain industry including planes, ships, trains, trucks, ports, customs brokers, and insurance companies, as well as financial and professional services.

KILN – Shipmap 

Traditionally, international trade consisted of the flow of goods across borders. However, this changed dramatically after the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations opened services and capital flows around the world to free trade. Today, block chains promise to further dramatically disintermediate international trade as does the data available to understand trade flows.

There are a host of data sources and interesting analysis of international trade available from the World Bank, the WTO, United Nations COMTRADE database, at the University of Oxford.

University of Oxford – Our World in Data: Trade and Globalization 

UN Comtrade – Global Trade Data.

World Bank – World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) 

World Trade Organization – Quantitative information on trade flows, tariffs, non-tariff measures (NTMs) and trade in value added.