Integrative Trade: Issues for Trade Analysis, Statistics and Policy

On December 6, 2006, the Centre for Trade Policy and Law at Carleton University organized a conference on the theme "Inte-grative Trade between Canada and the United States—Policy Implications". The discussion was structured around three main papers, which constitute the next three chapters of this volume: Timothy Sturgeon, "Conceptualizing Integrative Trade: The Global Value Chains Framework", which provides an overview of the state of development of multidisciplinary research on the evolution of global value chains; Art Ridgeway, "Data Issues on Integrative Trade between Canada and the US: Measurement Issues for Supply Chains", which examines the issues posed for statistical agencies in grappling with the changing international industrial landscape; and Michael Hart and William Dymond, "Trade Theory, Trade Policy, and Cross-Border Integration", which examined the implications of these developments for the trade policy community. This note sets out the background which motivated the organization of the conference and describes some of the concepts which shaped the discussions.