The world trade data distortion and its contagious impact. A brief comment on the WTO “Made in the World” initiative

The accuracy of indicators used both in economic research and for designing most appropriate policy tools by the decision makers is of crucial importance. As speeding up the globalization process, the relevance of various indicators has been affected because of the lowering connection to the changes in the world economy, reflecting increasingly less the new global realities, even unto loosing any rational meaningful. This was the case of statistical distortions in international trade data arising from the double and sometimes multi-counted record of the value of cross-border goods and services (engaged on the so called „global value-added chains”) due to the worldwide magnitude of the international fragmentation of production. This comment cautions on the remained unsolved problems, that still distorts data, even more serious, hindering the policy makers to achieve an accurate perception of realities, despite the review of the BoP international methodology and the debates on the WTO „Made in the World” initiative.