We were honored to learn that Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization and former Commissioner for Trade at the European Commission, would contribute to our Imports Work for America initiative.
Mr. Lamy has advocated for changing the way we think about trade, particularly when it comes to global supply chains, as he highlights in his Imports Work for Manufacturing statement below:
"The way we trade today is fundamentally different from even a decade ago. In our ever more integrated world products are no longer made in the United States, or Italy or Japan. They are made in the world as a result of global production chains.
Manufacturers use components made in many other countries as they assemble finished products for export. Today, 56% of trade in goods is in intermediate products destined for assembly. The average import content of global exports today is 40%. Ten years ago imported components constituted an average of but 20% of the value of exports.
To be competitive in global value chains means companies must have access to high quality and low cost inputs. This is why I say that to shoot at imports is to shoot yourself in the foot because you are undermining your exports as well. This is why we need a new narrative which recognises that trade is about exports as well as imports."
