Assessing the changes of the global value chain in the textile industry: Evidence from the Asia-Pacific region

The aim of this paper is to investigate global value chain (GVC) restructuring in the textile industry across Asia-Pacific economies during 2006–2020 by integrating the OECD Inter-Country Input-Output tables and the Trade in Value Added database. The main contribution of this paper is to provide value-added-based evidence on the reorganization of regional textile specialization within Asia-Pacific textile GVCs. Using 2006, 2015, and 2020 as benchmark years, the results show a shift toward “China-centered upstream concentration and Vietnam-centered downstream processing.” China’s intermediate exports to ASEAN, especially Vietnam, expanded markedly, and its value-added linkages with regional partners deepened. This pattern suggests that labor-intensive assembly and basic processing have increasingly relocated to Southeast Asia, while China appears to have strengthened its upstream and midstream positions within regional textile-related production networks. Within this restructuring, Taiwan maintains a pivotal role through higher-value upstream inputs and intra-industry linkages with production platforms in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Overall, the findings suggest that Asia-Pacific textile restructuring reflects not only the relocation of production capacity, but also a differentiated reorganization of value-chain functions across the region.