| On Transnational Corporations: |
Over
the last 70 years or so, an international capitalist class have been trying to create a
world order ruled by oligopoly capital. U.S. ruling elites have being leading this
process. After the collapse of bureaucratic socialism they are implementing a Project for the New American Century
which is unleashing, once again, U.S. State Terrorism all over the world. To understand
better how the international capitalist class enforces its domination mainly through U.S.
State Terrorism, I include here two texts ( Carroll & Carson, and Fraser &
Beeston). More reading on this is available at http://www.rrojasdatabank.org/pfpc. (Dr.
Róbinson Rojas - 2003)
--
W. K. Carroll & C. Carson:
Forging a New Hegemony? The Role of
Transnational Policy Groups in the Network and Discourses of Global Corporate Governance
---
I. Fraser and M. Beeston:
The Brotherhood
Part 1: Introduction. The Main Manipulating Groups
Part 2: The Main Protagonists
Part 3: Economic Control. Steps Towards a Global Bank
Part 4: Political Control
Part 5: The World Army
Part 6: Population Control
Part 7: Who We Are & Mind Manipulation
Part 8: Further Examples of Manipulation
Part 9: The Pharmaceutical Racket
Part 10: Seeing Beyond the Veil
---
Global
Policy Groups whose membership are the transnational corporate elite
-Global Economic Forum
-International Chamber of Commerce
-World Business Council for Sustainable Development
-Bilderberg Conference
-Trilateral Commission
|
E.J. Bartelsman and R.M.W.J Beetsma - 2000
Why pay more? Corporate tax avoidance through transfer pricing in OECD countries
This paper presents evidence of profit shifting in response to differences in corporate tax rates for a large selection
of OECD countries. In our stimates we control for the effects of tax rate changes on real activity. Our baseline estimates
suggest that, on average, a unilateral increase in the corporate tax rate does not lead to an increase in corporate tax revenues owing to a
more than offsetting decline in reported profits.
|
S. Anderson/J.
Cavanagh, 2000
Top 200: The Rise of Corporate Global Power
This study examines the economic and political power of the
world’s top 200 corporations. Led by
General Motors, these are the firms that are driving the process of corporate
globalization and arguably benefiting the most from it. The report then examines
the extent to which these firms are fulfilling the second half of Charles
Wilson’s promise by providing “what’s good for the country” and global society
in general. The conclusion of our analysis is that widespread trade and
investment liberalization have contributed to a climate in which dominant
corporations are enjoying increasing levels of economic and political clout that
are out of balance with the tangible benefits they provide to society.
The study reinforces a strong public distrust of the economic
and political power of corporations.
In
September 2000, Business Week magazine released a Business Week/Harris Poll
which showed that between 72 and 82 percent of Americans agree that “Business
has gained too much power over too many aspects of American life.”3 In the same
poll, 74 percent of Americans agreed with Vice President Al Gore’s criticism of
“a wide range of large corporations, including ‘big tobacco, big oil, the big
polluters, the pharmaceutical companies, the HMOs.’” And, 74-82 percent agreed
that big companies have too much influence over “government policy, politicians,
and policy-makers in Washington.”
|
T. Nace, September
2003
Gangs
of America
The rise of corporate power and the disabling of
democracy
Corporations are the dominant force in modern life,
surpassing even church and state. The largest are richer than entire nations,
and courts have given these entities more rights than people. To many Americans,
corporate power seems out of control. According to a Business Week/Harris poll
released in September 2000, 82 percent of those surveyed agreed that “business
has too much power over too many aspects of our lives.” And the recent
revelations of corporate scandal and political influence have only added to such
concerns.
|
S. Amin - 2000
The political economy
of the Twentieth Century
The twentieth century came to a close in an atmosphere astonishingly
reminiscent of that which had presided over its birth—the "belle époque" (and it
was beautiful, at least for capital). The bourgeois choir of the
European powers, the United States, and Japan (which I will call here "the
triad" and which, by 1910, constituted a distinct group) were singing hymns to
the glory of their definitive triumph. The working classes of the center were no
longer the "dangerous classes" they had been during the nineteenth century and
the other peoples of the world were called upon to accept the "civilizing
mission" of the West.
The belle époque crowned a century of radical global transformations, marked
by the emergence of the first industrial revolution and the formation of the
modern bourgeois nation-state. The process spread from the northwestern quarter
of Europe and conquered the rest of the continent, the United States, and Japan.
The old peripheries of the mercantilist age (Latin America and the British and
Dutch East Indies) were excluded from the dual revolution, while the old states
of Asia (China, the Ottoman sultanate, and Persia) were being integrated as
peripheries within the new globalization.
|
UNCTAD:
Largest
Transnational Corporations
UNCTAD ranks the largest non-financial TNCs by their foreign
assets and presents data on assets, sales and employment in three separate
lists: the 100 largest worldwide, the largest 100 from developing countries, and
the largest 10 from the economies in transition of Eastern Europe and the
CIS.
Financial firms are included in a separate list, the 50
largest worldwide, because of the different economic functions of assets of
financial firms and the non-availability of relevant data on sales and
employment. UNCTAD ranks the firms according to a Spread Index which takes into
account the number of foreign affiliates and the number of host countries.
The same ranking, together with an analysis of the relevance
of these TNCs in the world economy, is included in the various issues of the
World Investment Report.
World Investment Report
(the complete series)
|
Chen Chunlai - 1997
Provincial
characteristics and foreign direct investment location decision within China
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the most dramatic features of China’s move
from a planned economy toward a market economy. Since the passing in late 1979 of
the Equity Joint Venture Law which granted legal status to FDI in Chinese territory,
China has gradually liberalised its FDI regime, and an institutional framework has
been developed to regulate and facilitate such investments. The liberalisation of the
FDI regime and the improved investment environment have greatly increased the
confidence of foreign investors in China. Consequently, FDI inflows into China
increased rapidly after 1979, and particularly during the early 1990s. The total
accumulated amount of FDI at current prices rose from the initial US$0.109 billion in
1979 to reach US$133.19 billion in 1995, at an annual growth rate of 55.93 percent.
|
Chen Chunlai - 1997
The location determinant
of Foreign Direct Investment in developing countries
However, China is large, and large countries normally receive a large amount of
FDI inflows. Has China really received more FDI inflows from the world than it should
have, based on its economic and geographical characteristics? To answer this question
we have to investigate the location determinants affecting FDI inflows into developing
countries and establish an empirical norm of the magnitude of aggregate FDI inflows
from all source countries into a developing host country. Against the empirical norm, we
can investigate the relative performance of China and other developing countries in
attracting FDI and say whether or not China has attracted more FDI inflows than its
potential.
Therefore, this paper is designed to investigate and answer two key questions.
First, what are the location determinants affecting FDI inflows into developing
countries? Second, what is the relative performance of China in attracting FDI inflows
as compared with other developing countries in general and as compared with its
neighbouring Asian countries in particular?
|
Chen Chunlai - 1997
Comparison of investment
behaviour of source countries in China
Since China launched the economic reforms and called for direct foreign capital
participation in boosting its economic growth and upgrading its overall production
technology, China has become one of the world most important countries to host
foreign direct investment (FDI). On the one hand, FDI inflows into China increased
rapidly after 1979, and particularly during the early 1990s. On the other hand, more
than 100 countries have invested in China. As a result, since 1993 China has become
the second largest FDI recipient in the world (following the United States) and the
single largest host country among the developing countries (United Nations, 1995, p.
54). However, what is the composition of the source countries of FDI in China? Do
the source countries differ in their investment behaviour? This paper will discuss and
answer these questions.
|
FORBES
2000: The World's Leading Companies
The Global 500
World's Richest People
400 Richest Americans
All FORBES lists |
Mark Herkenrath &
Volker Bornschier - 2003
Transnational Corporations in World Development – Still the Same
Harmful Effects in an Increasingly Globalized World Economy?
During the last decades of the 20th century the world has experienced an
impressive increase in the amount and relative importance of bordercrossing
economic interlinkages. Transnational corporations (TNCs) whose
organizational structures transcend polities and connect various national societies
have been playing a leading role in this process. The TNC system has grown
substantially and gained historically unprecedented power in the political worldeconomy
(UNCTAD 2000: Overview). The old question of how transnational
corporations affect economic and social development in their host countries thus
arises with renewed relevance.
The findings of previous research result in a quite bleak picture. Although
standard economic theory argues transnational fi rms to be important catalysts
of development and worldwide convergence, numerous cross-national studies on
data from the late 1960s and early 1970s support the opposite view of dependencia
and world-system theorists. Th ey all show that TNC affi liates rather add
to inequality and underdevelopment than to socio-economic progress in their
host countries...
|
Citizen portal on
brands and corporations
Files |
E. Kolodner - 1994, UNRISD
Transnational Corporations: Impediments or Catalysts of
Social Development?,
Although the impact of the operation of
transnational enterprises has long been the subject of much discussion and
controversy, this debate has witnessed a qualitative change over the past 5 to
10 years. The fall of the Soviet empire, the decline of social welfare
programmes in some European states, and the predominance of a free market
ideology have all tilted this debate in favour of transnational corporations.
Furthermore, the increasing mobility of capital as well as the growth of
international and bilateral trade agreements have expanded the powers and
privileges of these multinational entities, while minimizing their social
responsibilities. This changing environment is particularly notable in many
developing countries where governments, once extremely suspicious of foreign
corporations, are now exerting efforts to attract TNC investment.
Despite this shift in thinking and policy, there
still exists substantial disagreement regarding the extent to which
transnational corporate activity promotes positive social development. On the
one hand, proponents for TNCs argue that these entities advance social goals by
providing jobs, paying taxes used for social programmes, building an industrial
base, earning foreign exchange, transferring technology, raising living
standards and contributing to charitable causes. On the other hand, advocates of
enhanced corporate responsibility note that TNCs have been linked to
interference in sovereign affairs, continued disparities in wealth, poor
workplace conditions, corruption, transfer pricing policies, and a "downward harmonization" of labour, consumer and
environmental standards.
|
The
ILO Programme on Multinational Enterprises and social policy
The Multinational Enterprises Programme (MULTI) is responsible for the
promotion and follow-up of the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning
Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration).
The aims of the Declaration are to encourage the positive contributions of
MNEs to economic and social progress, and to minimize and resolve the
difficulties to which their operatonis may give rise.
In addition to the activities related to the MNE Declaration, MULTI is also
responsible for ILO’s participation in the UN Global Compact and for
coordinating ILO’s work on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
|
Róbinson Rojas on:
- Transnational corporations and developing countries
- 1998
"Transnational corporations as engines of growth" have been the main
tenet of every theory of international business since the early 1950s.
By the late 1960s, when nationalist political movements were sweeping
Latin America, Asia, and Africa, the U.S. government organized a
special devise for protecting its own "engines of growth" operating in
developing countries: the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
It was the legalisation of a triple alliance: U.S. TNCs, government and army.
OPIC was established by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969 as a succesor
to the Agency for International Development (AID) investment guarantee
program for U.S. corporations operating in developing countries. Its
purpose was to insure U.S. investment capital "against losses from
certain specific political risks" including "loss of investment due
to expropriation, nationalization, or confiscation by the foreign
government". (taken from J. Petras and M.Morley, "The United States
and Chile: Imperialism and the Overthrow of the Allende Government",
Monthly Review Press, 1975).
- International capital and intellectual
dishonesty
- 1999
The basic rationale of what loosely is quoted or misquoted as "export-
led growth" has its foundation on the ideological position that
capitalist market always clears, and therefore delivers goods and
services as needed by those members of society who can buy them.
The old triple alliance between the state, domestic monopolic capital
and foreign capital was changed to a double alliance (domestic
monopolic capital and foreign capital) with a political warden (the
state) making sure that the domestic market was firmly in the hands
of the double alliance.
In a more sophisticated fashion, the intellectuals employed/hired by the
World Bank did put together, in 1991, the following conceptualization:...
- The poverty of international trade theory
- 1998
Since David Ricardo's "Economic Principles" were published in 1817,
international trade theory has been based on his main tenets, even
when "fine tuned" by Heckschen, Ohlin and Samuelson (trying to build
a neo-classical framework for the theory), Leontieff and Vernon
(attempting the introduction of the concept of technology), and
Krugman (oligopoly theory). By and large, with fine tuning and all,
still the three basic assumptions of the classical trade theory are
the main conceptual structure of the model. That is, capital flows,
technology transfer and labour migration are excluded from the model.
From above:
A.- factor immobility within the borders of a nation-state
is the most crucial assumption of the model;
B.- comparative advantage is determinated before hand, that
is before the opening of an economy to trade, according
to the static comparative approach, dividing economies
into capital-abundant and labour-abundant.
- Notes on the philosophy of the capitalist system - 1999
The world economy today is a multidimensional system within which
factors of production ( capital and labour ) move according to
decisions that are made by transnational agents ( transnational
corporations ) operating in oligopolistic markets.
Trade flows, capital movements, inward and outward foreign direct
investment, technology flows, and labour movements are all regulated
by transnational agents operating in oligopolistic markets.
The world economy joins industrialized societies and less developed
societies in a web built by the main agents dominating these
oligopolistic markets where in less developed societies the
relationships between EXTERNAL and INTERNAL FORCES form a
COMPLEX WHOLE whose structural links are not based on mere external
forms of exploitation and coercion, but are rooted in coincidences
of interests between local dominant classes and international ones,
and, on the other side, are challenged by local dominated groups
and classes ( see Cardoso and Faletto, "Dependency and Development
in Latin America", and Rojas, "Latin America: Blockages to
Development").
- The 'adjustment' of the world economy - 1997
The 'structural adjustment' of today's world economy, like in earlier
periods, is an interactive process between firms, markets and states.
The process, like in earlier periods, entails that the political
establishment serves the economic establishment, and the economic
establishment serves the most powerful capitals, the latter being, in
the second half of the twentieth century, what in general terms is
defined as 'transnational corporations'.
Both nationally and internationally, markets are dominated by groups of
transnational corporations, the latter creating an economic environment
where perfect competition does not exist, and, because of that, in many
aspects accumulation of capital becomes contradictory with accumulation
of social welfare and also contradictory with sustainable economic
development.
- The transnational corporate system in the late
1990s - 1997
Transnational direct investment in less developed societies in the
1990s is consolidating further the historical regional spheres of
influence by the former colonial powers.
By and large, Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe are
becoming more than ever "spheres of control of production and trade"
by the financial and industrial centers of the world.
Globalization is a task undertaken by the transnational corporate system,
and the system has three clear centers (United States, Japan, and the
major economies of the European Union). Those centers attract almost
totally the flows of international payment to factors of production,
creating a financial situation where capital flows from poor societies
to rich societies, as it was in the times of colonization and imperial
expansion from the 1500s to the 1930s.
The other main characteristic of the transnational corporate system
during the 1990s was the speeding up of "mergers and acquisitions"
which is one indicator of concentration of capital.
- South Korea, Taiwan and the myth of the "East
Asian miracle" - 1996
The notion of "guided capitalism" was put forward by scholars studying
the post 1945 processes of industrialization in three societies: Japan,
South Korea and Taiwan. The three cases had in common a "singularity",
which was
-special access to United States' domestic market,
-heavy protectionist economic policies accepted by transnational
corporations,
-special flows of grants and aid from the United States,
-special flows of aid in food from the United States when land reform
was in progress, and
-special military treaties, which boosted sectors of the domestic
economies in the three societies.
The above five components of this singularity made possible an economic
system which was accurately described as
a "close liaison between government and business, in which
the government picked industrial winners, promoted them with cheap
bank loans, and pushed them down the path of exporting, transformed
Korea into an industrial powerhouse". (Financial Times, Nov. 7, 1995)...
or,...
- A market-friendly strategy for development - 1998
Since the mid-1970s in the case of Chile and the early 1980s in the
case of the rest of the countries in the region, Latin America have
been applying "a market-friendly strategy for development"
(see R. Rojas, International capital and
intellectual dishonesty). The model, being based on what I call
"free-market fundamentalism", will develop very well
defined features, which will affect one factor of production (labour)
in several negative ways while it will give the other factor of
production (capital) the opportunity to become stronger, and more
efficient. (The effects on the pattern of production, mainly leading
to a fractured and dependent capitalist economy, are described in R.
Rojas: 15 years of monetarism in Latin America:
time to scream ). The African side of the "market-friendly
strategy for development" is in S. Rasheed/E. Chole: Human
development: an African perspective and U. N.: Survey
of Economic and Social conditions in Africa, 1995.
- Notes on agribusiness in the 1990s - 1998
...The above describes the triple alliance between transnational
corporations, domestic big capital and the state, which makes huge
profits from natural resources-intensive production, depleting them at
the highest possible rate of profits. This type of business is called
agribusiness. One of the transnational corporation involved in the
Indonesian fires was Cargill, Inc.
Cargill, Inc is the largest privately owned U.S. corporation. The
company operates in forty countries and has about 150 affiliates and
subsidiaries. Its business interests go from machinery factories in
the U.S. to soybeans in Brazil. Cargill's sister company is called
Tradax, with headquarters in Geneva. It owns grain elevators and storage
facilities, arranges regional financing with foreign banks, employs a
large number of sales agents, operates its own shipping network, and
deals heavily in buying and selling foreign currencies. In the 1980s,
Cargill was Argentina's leading exporter of wheat, barley, maize and
other grains...and the leading exporter of grain in France.
- Notes on transnational corporations
and the U.N.U.'s course on transnational corporations
--1. The growth and patterns of international
production
--2. The current role of TNCs in the world
economy
--3. The determinants of TNC activity
--4. Empirical testing of theories of international production
--5. Assessing the international market
--6. The impact of TNCs on development
--7. TNCs and the balance of payments
--8. TNCs and employment
--9. TNCs and the nation-state
10. TNCs and economic integration
11. TNCs in manufacturing activities
12. TNCs in the service sector
13. The spread of third world TNCs
14. Reactions to TNCs: national policies
15. Reactions to TNCs: multilateral
16. The future of TNCs
17. Bibliography
|
|
A bibliography for transnational corporations
studies |
ECLAC:
Foreign Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1998 Report
Foreign investment in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2002 |
UNCTAD:
World Investment Report
FDI
Statistics Online
Country
Fact Sheets
UNCTAD X:
documents and papers |
| UNCTAD:
World Investment Report 1998: Trends and
Determinants(press) |
| UNCTAD:
World Investment Report 1999:FDI and the challenge
of development |
| UNCTAD:
The largest transnational corporations and corporate
strategies. 1999 |
| U.S. Largest 500 Corporations |
| The World's Largest 500 Corporations |
| Ewe-Ghee,
Determinants
of, and the relation between, foreign direct investment and growth, 2001 |
Corporate Watch: The
big picture [Corporations and U.S. Politics]
Key issues & organizations
Research resources
From the horses mouth: corporate
resources
Research Library
How to research transnational
corporations |
| Corporate Watch UK:
"The Earth is not dying, is being killed, and
those who are killing it have names and addresses" |
| |
| ELDIS:
Transnational
corporations |
Multinational
Monitor
(journal) |
M.
Butler - 1986
How Europe can fight the multinationals
I have heard respectable people argue that it does not matter if
European high technology companies are taken over one after the other
by American or Japanese multinationals. If the market so decrees let
no man intervene!
This needs to be thought through. The multinationals are in
Europe TO PROMOTE THEIR PARENT COMPANIES' strategy for gaining world
market share and MAXIMISING THEIR LONG-TERM PROFITS. As part of that
strategy they may do some manufacturing in Europe and even some
research. BUT THEIR POLICY IS DECIDED IN THEIR HEADQUARTERS AND THE
MAJORITY OF THEIR PROFITS FLOW THERE. Once they have knocked out or
taken over the European competition, they are free to shift the
balance of their investment in plant and research towards home OR TO
OTHER MARKETS YET TO BE CONQUERED.
|
D.Caverhill - 1994
TNCs and the world economy.1994
The expansion of Transnational Corporations since the 1950s has been the
major growth area of the world economy, measured against indicators
including exports, Gross National Product, and world trade movements.
There has been no economic organization in post-industrial society that
has grown as quickly.
Transnational corporations affect and change almost every element of
economic, social and political life in the areas where they operate. While
the largest amounts of foreign direct investment by transnationals are
currently made within developed countries, history has shown that TNCs
go anywhere their strategic objectives can be met according to a carefully
considered cost/benefit/risk analysis.
|
| Staying Alive [Labour in the global information economy] |
| Transnational Corporate Research |
| EcoForum: The
Multilateral Agreement on Investment |
From Global Policy
Forum
General Articles on Transnational Corporations
Who controls the brave new globalized world? States or
Transnational Corporations (TNCs)? This page keeps track of the argument: how much power
do TNCs have? What are the areas where they exercise their power? And, most importantly,
how can citizens gain democratic control over these institutions?
----------------------- |
| Transnational Institute |
| Corporate Europe Observatory |
Corporate
Europe Observer (1999)
TNC control over Global Trade
Politics |
| Investment Watch |
OECD.- Multilateral Agreement in Investment:
Documentation from the negotiations |
| WHA: Transnational corporations |
1. The World Bank's environmental record
2. Structural adjustment: banking on poverty
3. Transnational corporations: the record [1]
4. Transnational corporations: the record [2]
5. Transnational corporations: the record [3]
6. Forum on labour in the global economy
7. Focus: women and multinationals
8. Globalization, agricultural employment and food security
9. Reconciling trade and the environment
10. Concepts and principles of international law
11. Trade and sustainable development
12. Shaping the environmental agenda of the 21st
century
13. FAO - Agreement on Agriculture, December 1993
14. Industrial development global report 1995
|
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| De
Grauwe, Paul and Filip Camerman, "How big are the big multinational companies", mimeo, 2002. |
| |
|
United Nations Organization - 1 May 1974
"The General Assembly
Adopts the following Declaration:
Declaration on the
Establishment of a New International Economic Order
We, the Members of the United Nations,
Having convened a special session of the General Assembly to
study for the first time the problems of raw materials and development, devoted
to the consideration of the most important economic problems facing the world
community,
Bearing in mind the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations to promote the economic advancement and social progress of
all peoples,
Solemnly proclaim our united determination to work urgently for THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER based on equity,
sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest and cooperation among all
States, irrespective of their economic and social systems which shall correct
inequalities and redress existing injustices, make it possible to eliminate the
widening gap between the developed and the developing countries and ensure
steadily accelerating economic and social development and peace and justice for
present and future generations, and, to that end, declare:
1. The greatest and most significant achievement during the last decades has
been the independence from colonial and alien domination of a large number of
peoples and nations which has enabled them to become members of the community of
free peoples. Technological progress has also been made in all spheres of
economic activities in the last three decades, thus providing a solid potential
for improving the well-being of all peoples. However, the remaining vestiges of
alien and colonial domination, foreign occupation, racial discrimination,
apartheid and neo-colonialism in all its forms continue to be among the
greatest obstacles to the full emancipation and progress of the developing
countries and all the peoples involved. The benefits of technological progress
are not shared equitably by all members of the international community. The
developing countries, which constitute 70 per cent of the world's population,
account for only 30 per cent of the worlds income. It has proved impossible to
achieve an even and balanced development of the international community under
the existing international economic order. The gap between the developed and the
developing countries continues to widen in a system which was established at a
time when most of the developing countries did not even exist as independent
States and which perpetuates inequality...
|
On integrated international production
Tables:
Table 1: Foreign-direct-investment inward flows, by region and economy, 1981-1991
Table 2: Foreign-direct-investment inward and outward stock, 1980, 1985 and 1990
Table 3: The ratio of foreign-direct-investment inflows to gross domestic capital formation
and the ratio of gross domestic capital formation to gross domestic product,
1971-1975, 1976-1980, 1981-1985, 1986-1991
Table 4: Average annual inflows of foreign direct investment to the
Ten largest developing economies, 1970-1980, 1981-1991
Table 5: New bilateral treaties for the promotion and protection of foreign direct
investment signed or entered into force in 1991 and 1992
Table 6: Changes in main national legislation relating to foreign direct investment in 1992
Table I.10: The largest 100 non-financial transnational corporations, ranked by foreign assets, 1990
Select list of publications of the UNCTAD Programme on Transnational Corporations
Questionnaire
|
From World Investment Report 2002:
Transnational Corporations and Exports Competitiveness
Chapter V
International Production System
A. Drivers and features
B. Case studies
C. Conclusions
TNC activities affect the export performance of host countries through a range of equity and non-equity relationships.
What is common to all of them is that production -and, more broadly, the operations of a firm- is organized under the
common governance of TNCs...In other words, global markets increasingly involve competition between entire production
systems, orchestrated
by TNCs, rather than between individual factories or firms"
While the growth of international
production systems is well recognized, it
is less well known that there is a growing
tendency for firms, even large TNCs, to
specialize more narrowly and to contract
out more and more functions to independent
firms, spreading them internationally, to take
advantage of differences in costs and logistics.
Some are even opting out of production
altogether, leaving contract manufacturers
to handle it while they focus on innovation
and marketing. The main suppliers and contract
manufacturers are themselves often large
TNCs, with global “footprints” matching those
of their principals and with their own
subcontractors and suppliers. However, TNCs
also increasingly use national suppliers and
contractors in host economies. Specialization
does not stop here: leading TNCs are also
entering into joint innovation arrangements
with other firms – competitors, suppliers
or buyers – and with institutions such as
research laboratories, universities and so
on. Thus, the emerging global production
system is becoming more multifaceted , but
with tighter coordination by lead players
in each international production system.
|
O.
Sunkel, 1985
The transnational corporate system
There are some crucial questions relating to the TNC which one
cannot begin to understand, much less to answer, if one does not
have a more realistic picture of contemporary capitalism. The
so-called market has in fact been superseded to a significant degree
by public and private planning. To a very large extent, the visible
hands of the State and the TNC have long replaced the mythical
invisible hand of laissez-faire capitalism, if it ever existed. It
is not really the individual institution of the TNC as such that is
the object of so much attention. There have been individual instances
of large world-wide business organizations in the past which have not
aroused such great concern. The focus is rather on the emergence of a
transnational business system with such a great potential for socially
uncontrolled power and influence that international society finds
itself forced into a profound reorganization in order to accommodate it.
|
UNCTAD: World Investment Reports:
2005 - TNCs and the
internationalization of R&D
2004
- The shift towards services
2003 -
FDI Policies for Development: Ntl. and Intl. Perspectives
2002 - TNCs and Export Competitiveness
2001 -
Promoting Linkages
2000 -
Cross-border M & A and Development
1999 -
FDI and the Challenge of Development
1998 -
Trends and Determinants
1997 -
TNCs, Market Structure and Competition Policy
1996 -
Investment, Trade and International Policy Agreements
1995 -
TNCs and Competitiveness
1994 - TNCs, Employment and the Workplace
1993 - TNCs and Integrated International Production
1992 -
TNCs as Engines of Growth
1991 - The Triad In Foreign Direct Investment
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The Triad (E.U., U.S.A, and Japan) in Foreign Direct Investment
UNCTAD: World Development Investment 1991
Table of contents
Introduction
Chapter I
Global Trends
A. The increasing importance of foreign direct investment
B. Regional distribution
C. Sectoral patterns of foreign direct investment
D. Policies affecting foreign direct investment
Chapter II
Patterns of foreign direct investment in the Triad
A. The Triad members
B. Intra-Triad investment relationships
C. Regional networks of Japanese trasnational corporations
D. The Triad, developing the Central and Eastern European Countries
Chapter III
Interlinkages
A. Foreign direct investment and international trade
B. Transnational corporations and technology transfer
C. Transnational corporations and financial flows
D. The integrating agents: transnational corporations
Chapter IV
Policy Implications
A. The growing role of foreign direct investment in the world economy
B. The issue of governance
C. Policy implications for improving investment flows to developing
countries
Annex
Indicators of the significance of foreign affiliates in selected host economies, mid- to
late 1980s.
Selected
UNCTAD publications on Transnational Corporations and Foreign Direct Investment
Questionnaire
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London - 4 April 2006
World's biggest 25 food companies not taking health seriously enough
The world’s top 25 food companies appear not to be taking the new global diet
and health agenda seriously enough, says an 80 page report from The City
University out today.
Researchers at City’s Centre for Food Policy studied the annual reports,
accounts and HQ websites (to Autumn 2005) of the top 10 food manufacturers, top
10 food retailers and top 5 foodservice companies (top 3 fast food and top 2
contract caterers).They were rated for whether the companies were doing anything
about the health agenda agreed by the world’s governments at the World Health
Organisation.
In May 2004, a Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health was
passed by the World Health Assembly (the WHO’s governing body). This made
recommendations to companies as to what they could do to health tackle the
world’s diet crisis – not just obesity but heart disease, cancers and
diabetes.
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| IMF: International Capital
Flows, 2001 |
| Foreign Policy IN FOCUS
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| CorpWatch: Holding Corporations Accountable |
| CorpWatch:
Alliance for a
Corporate-Free UN |
The
General Agreement on Trade and Commerce
GATSwatch:
- debate
- corporate lobbying
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- education
- e-commerce
- energy
- environment
- financial services
- gender issues
- health
- labour rights
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