The paradigm shift in global trade relations – implications for South Africa’s industrial and trade policies

South Africa - 30 October 2017

As production becomes increasingly dispersed around the world with the growing allegiance to regional and global value chains (R/GVCs), many countries are under pressure to rethink their industrial and trade policies. Aligning industrial and trade policies is difficult at the best of times, but a new dimension has crept into the policy space—the gradual shift in the locus of trade power from countries to firms in the wake of the R/GVC phenomenon.