Trade imbalances have been a major issue that ignited the recent wave of anti-globalisation in some in-dustrialised countries. Given the emergence of intangibles in recent decades (Durand & Milberg, 2019; Haskel & Westlake, 2017; Orhangazi, 2018; Rikap & Lundvall, 2019) and the increasing embedded-ness of trade in knowledge and services in global value chains (GVCs) following the globalisation of production (Baldwin & Evenett, 2015; Helpman & Krugman, 1985; Venables, 1999), our understand-ing of capitalism and international trade faces significant challenge. An important question arises with regard to the channels and the measurement of the trade in intangibles, which include a range of intel-lectual properties such as patents, know-how, trademarks, copyrights, brands and trade secrets. How to modify the framework for the measurement of international trade so as to comprehensively and truly reflect the complex trade relationships between countries in the twenty-first century becomes an important question awaiting an answer.