Global Value Chains in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Olga V. Ponomareva – Researcher of the Russian APEC Study Center, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Researcher of the Institute for International Economics and Finance, Russian Foreign Trade Academy (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tatyana A. Flegontova – Director of the Russian APEC Study Center, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Deputy Director of the Institute for International Economics and Finance, Russian Foreign Trade Academy (Moscow, Russia). Е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was a sudden and significant negative factor. On the one hand, it created additional conditions for further growth of protectionist measures in the international trade, on the other hand, it revealed the vulnerability of existing global value chains (GVC) and formulated another justification for their restructuring in accordance with the latest trends in their development. These trends are related to the digitalization of trade, the use of new technologies in production, the corresponding shifts in the costs profiles of companies All these tendencies lead to geographical reorientation and qualitative changes in the functioning of GVCs.

The article was written on the basis of the RANEPA state assignment research programme.

Key words: Global value chains, GVC, pandemic, COVID-19, protectionism, China, trade, digitalization.