International Friction and Cooperation in High-Technology Development and Trade Papers and Proceedings (1997) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Foreign Direct Investment Restrictions: Consequences for Trade and Technology
Foreign Direct Investment Restrictions: Consequences for Trade and Technology
Pages 107-118
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 107... ...
This issue is also associated with new definitions of market access that involve effective access by exports and effective presence by investment. This issue has pushed the policy template of deeper integration inside the border.
|
From page 108... ...
So if this is the beginning of a new phase of deeper integration, one could argue that any investment policy should involve the non-OECD countries. On 24 May 1995 we received a major announcement that OECD ministers had requested that the negotiations begin immediately on a multilateral agreement on investments (MAI)
|
From page 109... ...
The agenda in which the United States is promoting this market access includes a bilateral investment treaty program in which the United States signed bilateral investment treaties with 35 countries. One of the important features of the U.S.
|
From page 110... ...
We do believe that the OECD countries will be able to do better on TRIMS than they did in the Uruguay Round. We will also be looking at liberalization in a more generic, nonsectoral sense by way of having rights to establishment rather than rights to most favored nation or national treatment only in the postestablishment phase.
|
From page 111... ...
There is an enormous amount of flow between OECD countries, often in the form of mergers and acquisitions as part of the overall corporate structures and strategy of the investors rather than in the form of greenfield investments. Greenfield investments are important, but mergers and acquisitions are certainly the dominant type of foreign direct investment flow today, and the lion's share of that remains between the OECD countries.
|
From page 112... ...
Economists, studying this pattern of corporate behavior, claim to have identified a routine pattern that they label "product cycle theory." But the OTA's work supports the notion that a second, alternative corporate strategy exists. Instead of replacing domestic production with production at the manufacturing plants of their foreign affiliates, some multinational corporations focus their direct investment policy on efforts to increase domestic exports.
|
From page 113... ...
The capacity of these firms to invest in ways that maximize exports to the United States is, in part, a product of the American policy of national treatment that minimizes government regulation in the hope of maximizing the volume and gains of foreign direct investment. This approach seems to be justified, in view of the record aggregate growth in foreign investment in the last 15 years.
|
From page 114... ...
Although this tendency has been most avidly discussed in the behavior of newly industrializing economies, recent evidence points to the use of discriminatory trade barriers in the Vizegrad countries of Eastern Europe against U.S. products, as well as the denial of trade and investment access in select cases in other OECD countries such as Westinghouse's recent experience in Germany.
|
From page 115... ...
Sanctuary Markets and the Development of New Industries Michael Gadbaw, General Electric I am going to talk about General Electric, the role of technology and technology policy, the impact of the global framework of trade and investment, and, finally, I will make an observation about the role of multinational corporations in shaping the global environment. First of all, GE prides itself on being a technology-based company, whether it is aircraft engines, engineered plastics, or advanced imaging equipment, built around technological discoveries, or whether it is in our more traditional lines of business, such as advanced turbines for power generation, energy-efficient lighting products, or locomotives and other transportation equipment.
|
From page 116... ...
In this respect, I am concerned that in the United States, Congress and government officials are arguing that the so-called conditional national treatment must be applied to the investors. BRUCE DUNCOMBE: It is true that recent Congresses have enacted legislation that has conditional national treatment provisions.
|
From page 117... ...
However, the record shows that, where there are conditional national treatment provisions as part of the legislation, foreign firms have had access to these programs, and I am aware of only one case in which a foreign firm was denied access to a program. I believe what we are talking about is a small blemish on an investment climate that is really very hospitable to foreign investment.
|
From page 118... ...
The fact that German utilities are now taking some of the money they made in the power generation sector and are putting it into telecommunications is a further sign that they will realize that you cannot have it both ways. You cannot play in a global game and have an exclusive national game at the same time.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.