Transnational corporations and integrated international production
UNCTAD: World Investment Report 1993
Table of contents -
Preface -
Overview
Chapter I -
Global Trends -
A. Trends -
B. The universe of transnational corporations -
C. The policy framework
Chapter II -
Regional Trends -
A. Developed countries -
B. Developing countries -
C. Central and Eastern Europe
Chapter III -
Sectoral Trends -
A. Overall trends -
B. The primary sector -
C. The secondary sector -
D. The tertiary sector -
E. Conclusions
Chapter IV -
The growth of foreign direct investment in the 1980´s: The bulge in the trend -
A. Short term factors -
B. Policy changes -
C. Structural factors -
D. Future prospects
Chapter V -
Strategies of transnational corporations -
A. The functional scope of international production -
B. The geographic scope of international production -
C. Conclusions
Chapter VI -
Organizational structures of transnational corporations -
A. Structures of transnational corporations under complex strategies -
B. Integrated international production at the firm level -
C. Conclusions
Chapter VII -
Integrated International Production and its implications -
A. The characteristics of the system -
B. The geographic structure of integrated international production -
C. Implications for host countries
Chapter VIII -
Corporate Nationality -
A. The grounds of corporate nationality -
B. Corporate nationality: where and how it matters -
C. Integrated international production and corporate nationality -
D. Towards more order and clarity -
E. Looking ahead
Chapter IX -
Parent-Affiliate relations and responsibilities -
A. The parent-affiliate dichotomy -
B. National legislative and judicial approaches -
C. Options for consideration -
D. Public opinion and corporate good will -
E. Conclusions
Chapter X -
Tax Policy -
A. Problems of allocating business income -
B. Income allocation in an integrated international production system -
C. Alternative methods for dealing with the allocation of income -
D. Some implications for tax policy
Chapter XI -
Investment Policies -
A. Competition for investment and the convergence of investment policies -
B. Investment policies in developing countries -
C. International production, competitiveness and systemic convergence
References -
Annex 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 1997: Transnational corporations, market structure and
competition policy:
In contrast to what might be expected when FDI and trade become freer and expand together,
globalization may well increase concentration"...and this process may be accentuated
by integrated international production. Integrated International Production will generate
barriers for developing countries attempting independent planning for development.
V. POLICY IMPLICATIONS
Introduction
-A. Investment liberalization
--1. Liberalization of entry and operations
--2. Limiting market-power inducements
----(a) Assessing costs and benefits
----(b) Minimizing anticompetitive effects
-B. The interface of foreign direct investment and competition law
--1. The growing emphasis on competition law
--2. Main elements of competition law
--3. Competition law and foreign direct investment
----(a) At-entry inward merger review
-------i. General trends
-------ii. Typical scenarios involving mergers and acquisitions
----(b) Outward merger review
----(c) Worldwide dominant positions
----(d) Post-entry competition issues
-------i. Ancillary agreements restraining competition
-------ii. Secondary effects
-------iii. Cross-border technology alliances
-C. Broader policy implications
--1. The importance of competition policy
--2. International cooperation
----(a) The need for international cooperation
----(b) Obstacles
-------i. Impediments to information access
-------ii. Limited enforcement cooperation
-------iii. Differences in competition laws
----(c) Existing cooperation arrangements
--3. Looking ahead
-D. Competition policy and market outcomes
--1. Naturally concentrated markets
--2. Competing objectives
----(a) Promoting development
----(b) Other objectives
Notes
References
|
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.
|
United Nations - Economic Comission for Latin America and the Caribbean
Twenty-Ninth Session, Brasilia, Brasil
6-10 May 2002
Globalization and Development
The process that has come to be known as globalization, -i.e.,
the progressively greater influence being exerted by worldwide
economic, social and cultural processes over national or regional
ones— is clearly leaving its mark on the world of today. This is not a
new process. Its historical roots run deep. Yet the dramatic changes in
terms of space and time being brought about by the communications
and information revolution represent a qualitative break with the past.
In the light of these changes, the countries of the region have requested
the secretariat to focus the deliberations of the twenty-ninth session of
ECLAC on the issue of globalization and development.
Globalization clearly opens up opportunities for development.
We are all aware -and rightfully so- that national strategies should
be designed to take advantage of the potential and meet the
requirements associated with greater integration into the world
economy.
This process also, however, entails risks:
risk generated by
new sources of instability in trade flows and, especially, finance;
the
risk that countries unprepared for the formidable demands of
competitiveness in today’s world may be excluded from the process;
and the risk of an exacerbation of the structural heterogeneity
existing
among social sectors and regions within countries whose linkages with
the world economy are segmented and marginal in nature.
Many
of these risks are associated with two disturbing aspects of
the globalization process:
The first
is the bias in the current
form of market globalization created by the fact that the mobility of
capital and the mobility of goods and services exist alongside
severe restrictions on the mobility of labour. This is reflected in the asymmetric, incomplete nature
of the international agenda that accompanies the globalization process. This agenda does not, for
example, include labour mobility. Nor does it include mechanisms for ensuring the global coherence
of the central economies’ macroeconomic policies, international standards for the appropriate
taxation of capital, or agreements regarding the mobilization of resources to relieve the
distributional tensions generated by globalization between and within countries...The
second...
|
Global Value Chains
concepts and tools
The
value chain describes the full range of activities that firms and workers do to
bring a product from its conception to its end use and beyond. This includes
activities such as design, production, marketing, distribution and support to
the final consumer. The activities that comprise a value chain can be contained
within a single firm or divided among different firms. Value chain activities
can produce goods or services, and can be contained within a single geographical
location or spread over wider areas. The GVC Initiative is particularly
interested in understanding value chains that are divided among multiple firms
and spread across wide swaths of geographic space, hence the term "global value
chain."
Why are we interested in global value
chains? Studies from a range of disciplines show that global value
chains have become much more prevalent and elaborate in the past 10 to 15
years. While many firms have had international operations and trading
relationships for decades and a few for more than a century, global value chains
now contain activities that are tightly integrated and often managed on a
day-to-day basis. This means that firms and workers in widely separated
locations affect one another more than they have in the past. Some of these
effects are quite straightforward, as when a firm from one country establishes a
new factory or engineering center in another country, and some are more complex,
as when a firm in one country contracts with a firm in another country to
coordinate production in plants owned by yet another firm in a third country,
and so on...
|
| |
| |
|
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.
|
From Trade and Development Report 2007:
Regional cooperation for development
The Trade and Development Report 2007,...
recommends that developing countries should
strengthen regional cooperation with other
developing countries, but proceed carefully with
regard to North-South bilateral or regional
preferential trade agreements. Such agreements may
offer gains in terms of market access and higher
foreign direct investment, but they can also limit
national policy space, which can play an important
role in the medium- and long-term growth of
competitive industries
From Trade and Development Report 2006:
Global partnership and national policies for development
"The rules and commitments of the international trading regime restrict the
de jure ability
of developing nations to adopt national development policy".
"Rules and commitments, which in legal terms are equally binding for all countries,
in economic terms might impose more binding constraints on developing countries"(p. 167)
From Trade and Development Report 2005:
New Features of Global Interdependence
"Natural-resource
endowments determine the degree to which selfsufficiency
in food and raw materials is compatible with rapid industrial
development and growth ... but the balance-of-payments constraint limits import growth." (p. 52)
More Trade and Development Reports here
|
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...
|
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
|
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.
------------------------- |
| IMF: International Capital
Flows, 2001 |
| Foreign Policy IN FOCUS
|
| CorpWatch: Holding Corporations Accountable |
| CorpWatch:
Alliance for a
Corporate-Free UN |
The
General Agreement on Trade and Commerce
GATSwatch:
- debate
- corporate lobbying
- development
- education
- e-commerce
- energy
- environment
- financial services
- gender issues
- health
- labour rights
- labour mobility
- libraries
- local government
- postal services
- public services
- privatisation
- retail / wholesale
- tourism
- transport
- water
|
| |
