Recently, international trade has become regional rather than global. This paper aims to test if deeper regional integration contributes to the organization of global value chains along the regional clusters including Asia, Europe, and America. We estimate the impacts of deep regional integrations on global value chains by region, investigating the implications of mega FTAs for global value chains by scenario. We use not only data on trade in value added but also global value chains participation indexes which reflect the global value chains better than domestic value added in goods and services exports. The estimation results reveal that a deep regional trade agreement has heterogeneous effects on global value chains depending on the regional clusters. In particular, Asia turns out to import more intermediate goods than Europe and America while RTA member countries tend to import more intermediate goods from Europe than Asia and America.

Keywords: deeper regional integration, global value chains

JEL Classification: F11, F14 

Executive Summary

Contributor

I. Introduction

II. Content of Preferential Trade Agreements

III. Empirical Model and Data

IV. Estimation Results
1. Impacts of Deep Regional Integration on Global Value Chains
2. Tests of GVC Organization along the Regional Clusters
3. Possible Impacts of Mega FTAs on Global Value Chains
4. Robustness Checks

V. Summary and Conclusion

Appendix

References