Global production networks in electronics and intra-Asian trade

The past 20 years have seen a sharp rise in intraregional East Asian trade. In 1980, trade among the nine major developing East Asian (EA-9) countries represented just 21 per cent of their total exports and 22 per cent of their imports.1 By 2004, the intraregional export share had risen to 40 per cent, and the import share to 47 per cent. Much of the growth in intraregional trade has been driven by the growth of trade in electronics, which accompanied the rise of East Asia as the world’s leading electronics producer. By 2004, trade in electronics represented $326 billion of the total intraregional manufactured trade of $704 billion.