To the outside observer, the concept of a supply chain may be something new. Shipwrecks and galleons remind us that this far from the case. In more recent times, a newer concept has also arisen: many products today are made not in one or perhaps two locations, but "made in the world". The iPhone was the early poster child of this business model, where the final product is made up of inputs sourced from all over the world, supplied "just in time", and the result of complex value chains.

For the best part of a decade, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) has spent much time discussing how to speed up the way components, known as "intermediate goods" (i.e., destined for assembly into finished products), moved around the planet. This work has picked up pace in the aftermath of the pandemic. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) seeks to build on APEC’s voluntary and non-binding work to incorporate a range of commitments aimed at increasing the speed and lowering the cost of cross-border goods trade. Those provisions will be reappraised as part of a review of CPTPP that was initiated by its 12 members at their recent meeting on the margins of APEC in San Francisco. The review’s Terms of Reference specifically reference "support(ing) global value chains, and strengthen(ing) supply chain resilience to help Members to withstand external shocks and disruption."¹

The US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) also has "resilient supply chains" – also known as moving from "just in time" to "just in case" - in its focus. In May 2023, IPEF completed negotiations for its Supply Chain Pillar which was duly signed by all 14 member economies in San Francisco in November. This new agreement provides potentially useful collaborative mechanisms for participating economies to identify and monitor critical supply chains, discuss developments, and react, hopefully quickly, in times of crisis, such as was seen during the pandemic.