2017-2018 Work Plan for the APEC Technical Group on

Measurement on TiVA under GVCs

Purpose: Consideration

Submitted by: Co-Chairs

Part 1: Major technical tasks for 2017-18 as described in the Work Plan

According to the Work Plan for the Technical Group on Measurement of APEC TiVA under GVCs, the major technical tasks for the years 2017 and 2018 are as follows:

Technical tasks for year 2017:

1. Complete the data reconciliation of bilateral trade in goods by APEC economies and rest of the world;

2. Complete the data reconciliation of bilateral trade in services by APEC economies and rest of the world, to the extent of available data;

3. Check and validate APEC economies’ SUTs/IOTs or extended SUTs/IOTs and other reported statistics; adjust SUTs/IOTs as needed to bring them into alignment with balanced goods and services trade statistics;

4. Based on available annual micro and macro statistics, update submitted SUTs/IOTs as needed to fit within a unified APEC TiVA framework, if possible.

Technical tasks for year 2018:

1. Integrate APEC economies’ SUTs/IOTs and construct APECSUT/APECIOT by major economic sector, and APECSUT/APECIOT by major economic sectors with firm heterogeneity, if applicable;

2. Compute the APEC TiVA Database and draft related participating Economy Note;

3. Work with the OECD-WTO TiVA team to check consistency between the APEC TiVA Database and the OECD-WTO TiVA Database. Make necessary adjustment to integrate the two databases.

Part 2: Technical work plan for 2017-2018

1. Five major areas of technical work:

Based on the above task list in the Work Plan for the years 2017 and 2018, up to five major areas of technical work have been identified:

1) Derive, if not available, and reconcile bilateral trade statistics in goods and services for 21 APEC economies for benchmark years, and the time series, if applicable (2017);

2) As needed, estimate and update SUTs/IOTs at basic prices for 21 APEC economies that do not have readily available data for benchmark years, and the time series, if applicable (2017);

3) Construct the APECSUT/APECIOT (2018);

4) Develop TiVA indicators based on the APECSUTs/APECIOTs (2018); and

5) If applicable, construct the extended APECSUT/APECIOT incorporating information on firm heterogeneity where possible (2018).

2. Establish A Core Technical Task Force

To carry out the technical tasks for the years 2017 and 2018, a Core Technical Task Force (CTTF) under the Technical Group will be established.

Co-chairs will officially lead the CTTF and nominate two CTTF technical leaders, one from China and one from the United States, who would be responsible for developing the CTTF operation mechanism and implementation plans for carrying out required technical work. On the voluntarily basis, the CTTF members will be drawn from the Core Expert Team (CET) and the Technical Working Teams of participating APEC member economies (MTWT). Their selections and assignments will be based on their expertise in specific technical areas as identified above. Their participation of CTTF work will be self-funded, though their participation in the 3rd capacity building workshop could be funded if such funding becomes available, on the condition that they qualify for the specific requirements of the available funding.

During 2017 and 2018, the CTTF members should commit time to working remotely, and onsite if needed, to develop the methodologies, conduct required technical work, and produce targeted deliverables.

The CTTF will collaborate with CET, MTWTs, and international organizations such as OECD, WTO, UNSD, and ADB, to produce targeted deliverables and ensure the quality and consistency of the resulting data.

The CTTF will report work progress to the co-chairs and the Technical Group regularly.

3. Work plan and corresponding deliverables

1) 2016:

i. Designate CTTF technical leaders;

ii. Develop the CTTF operation mechanism and implementation plans;

iii. Call for participants to establish the CTTF team;

2) 2017:

i. By August, 2017, receive the technical training at the third capacity building workshop (TBD);

ii. By October 31, 2017, CTTF will deliver balanced statistics on trade in goods and services among the 21 APEC economies where data is available and rest of the world for the two benchmark years;

iii. By October 31, 2017, CTTF will deliver SUTs/IOTs at basic prices for all 21 APEC economies where data is available for the two benchmark years;

iv. By December 31, 2017, the CTTF will reconcile the benchmark SUTs/IOTs with balanced trade statistics to ensure consistency;

v. By December 31, 2017, based on available data and resources, the CTTF will evaluate the feasibility of constructing time series SUTs/IOTs and extended SUTs/IOTs.

3) 2018:

i. By October 31, 2018, the CTTF will deliver the APECSUTs/APECIOTs, the TiVA indicators, as well as economy notes;

ii. By December 31, 2018, the CTTF will complete the integration of the APEC TiVA database with the OECD-WTO TiVA database.

Annex 1

Biography of Mr. Yaxiong Zhang, Co-Leader, China, Core Technical Task Force

Mr. Yaxiong Zhang, research professor and Deputy Director-General of Department of Economic Forecasting, State Information Center (SIC), the State Council special allowance expert, Vice-president of China Input-output Association. His research interests cover Macro-economic modeling, energy and climate change study. He works on international (inter-regional) input-output analysis and CGE modeling. He organized to compile 1997, 2002 and 2007 China’s multi-provincial IOTs. He published in Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Economic System Research, Progress on Climate Change Study, Asian Economic Journal, The Journal of Econometric Study of Northeast Asia, and Economic Research (JingJiYanJiu), Statistical Research (TongJiYanJiu), International Economic Review (GuoJiJingJiPingLun), Economic Perspectives (JIngJiXueDongTai) and Reform (GaiGe), etc.

Annex 2

Biography of Mr. Zhi Wang, Co-Leader, United States, Core Technical Task Force

Dr. Zhi Wang is a senior policy research fellow at School of Policy, Government & International Affairs at George Mason University. He is also a professor and director of Research Center of Global Value Chains at University of International Business and
Economics in Beijing. He obtained his Ph.D. in applied economics at University of Minnesota with a minor in computer and information sciences in 1994. He worked as a Lead international economist at Research Division, U.S. International Trade Commission for more than 10 years before his current appointment. He also worked as a consultant for the World Bank in the World Development Report, 1995, as an economist at Purdue University, Economic Research service (ERS) of U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of U.S. Department of Commerce, and as a senior research scientist at School of Computational Sciences of Gorge Mason University before he joint USITC in 2005. He was a research fellow at Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences before he came to the United States and served on the board of directors of the Chinese Economists Society (CES) during 1992-93. His major fields of expertise include computable general equilibrium modeling, value chain in global production network, measuring trade in value-added, data reconciliation methods, economic integration among Greater China area, Chinese economies, and international trade. Because of his contribution to the GTAP database and to its use in contemporary policy applications, and his methodological contributions in reconciling re-export trade data, he was selected as Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Research Fellow multi-times in 2000-2003, 2007-2010 and 2011-2014. He also served as the US co-chair of the APEC Trade in Value-added (TiVA) technical group, lead the efforts to build APEC TiVA database. He also served in Fulbright senior scholar program offering general equilibrium trade policy analysis classes at Chengchi University in Taipei and Tsinghua University in Beijing during 2005 and 2007 respectively. He has long list of publication in world leading economic journals, including the American Economic Review, American Journal of agricultural Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of Regional Sciences, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Journal of Policy Modeling. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of several books and many book chapters, including Global Economic Effects of the Asian Currency Devaluations (PIIE, 1998), The Implications of China-Taiwan Economic Liberalization (PIIE, 2010), and Trade in Value Added: Developing New Measures of Cross-Border Trade (CEPR and the World Bank, 2013).

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