The recent events including the rise of the US protectionism, the US-China trade war, BREXIT and COVID-19 pandemic, have brought significant chaos to the international order, especially to the international trade. The governments and corporates have b...
The recent events including the rise of the US protectionism, the US-China trade war, BREXIT and COVID-19 pandemic, have brought significant chaos to the international order, especially to the international trade. The governments and corporates have been seriously confused, facing the age of uncertainty. The most urgent change is needed in their management of the global value chains (GVCs), after experiencing the rise of trade barriers and continuing lockdowns. The GVC strategy is seemingly shifting towards the regional value chain (RVC) today but the US has utilized its rules of origin (RoO) in a bilateral agreement like the Auto Pact and FTAs as early as the 1960s in the auto and its parts sector in particular. This study is to introduce and investigate the RVC enhancement of the industry under the US FTAs including the CUSFTA, NAFTA and USMCA. The agreements have effectively strengthened its RVC by adopting the RoO provisions like the tariff elimination, the rise and intensification of the regional value contents. The case of the US certainly provides meaningful implications at this juncture when governments and corporates have unprecedented interests in RVC as their foreign and business strategies.