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Redefining Transnational Corporations

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 Transnational Corporations Review Vol. 1, No. 2, 2009
www.tnc-online.org 69-80

Redefining Transnational Corporations

Hugh Deng, Lindsey Higgs and Victor Chan ∗

Abstract: This paper discusses the essential features of transnational corporations (TNCs). It is important
to define TNCs in order to better understand their role and functions within a globally integrated system.
The paper explores traditional conceptions of TNCs and briefly reviews their history.

Key words: transnational corporations, definition, development, international policy

1. Introduction

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the world's
transnational corporations (TNCs) - 40,000 parent firms and 250,000 foreign affiliates - account for two
thirds of world trade in goods and services; one third in intra-firm transactions and the other third in inter-
firm transactions 1 . Foreign direct investment (FDI) by TNCs and the transnational system of production
and economic transactions is now the dominant element of the world economy, particularly with regards
to international development.

What is a TNC? In other words, what are the essential features of TNCs? The questions that must be
considered are basic, yet fundamental. We need to redefine TNCs in order to better understand their role
and functions within a globally integrated system. This paper will explore traditional conceptions of
TNCs, and briefly review the history of TNCs. However, the focus of the paper will be on the
contemporary roles and functions of TNCs and the need to reconsider the understanding of TNCs.

2. Traditional definitions

Though TNCs have been written about extensively, the definition of a TNC” is often varied and
controversial. For example, in the popular Wikipedia encyclopaedia, TNCs are combined with
multinational enterprises (MNEs). According to Wikipedia, a multinational corporation or TNC is

A corporation or enterprise that manages production establishments or delivers services

in at least two countries. Very large multinationals have budgets that exceed those of
many countries. Multinational corporations can have a powerful influence in
international relations and local economies. Multinational corporations play an
∗
1278 Shillington Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA K1Z 8A4. Email: info@tnc-online.org

1
UNCTAD (1995), World Investment Report

69

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1894828

 Redefining transnational corporations

important role in globalization; some argue that a new form of MNC is evolving in
response to globalization: the 'globally integrated enterprise'.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also uses the term “multinational
corporations” to refer to “transnational corporations”. In its “International Investment and Multinational
Enterprises: The OECD Guidelines for International Enterprises,” the OECD explains that it aims to
ensure that MNEs “operate in harmony with the policies of the countries in which they operate" and to
“develop greater understanding between business, governments and labour.” 2 Unfortunately, the OECD's
guidelines gave no clear definition of TNCs/MNEs, although there is a definition for “enterprise”.

In 1977, the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (UNCTC) began negotiations to
establish a voluntary Code of Conduct on TNCs. The Code of Conduct was intended to build a positive
link between TNCs and development goals. The UN Code of Conduct defines TNCs as

“…enterprises, irrespective of their country of origin and their ownership, including private,
public or mixed, comprising entities in two or more countries, regardless of the legal form and
fields of activity of these entities, which operate under a system of decision-making centres in
which these entities are so linked, by ownership or otherwise, that one or more of them may be
able to exercise a significant influence over the activities of others and in particular, to share
knowledge, resources and responsibilities with the others. 3 ”

According to Jed Greer and Kavaljit Singh, a TNC is a "public" corporation, which trades its shares of
stock at stock exchanges or brokerage houses. The buyers from the public are "shareholders", including
individuals and institutions such as banks, insurance companies, and pension funds. 4 UNCTAD's World
Investment Report (WIR) used the terminology of a 'multilateral framework' to argue for an agreement
'creating new parameters for international business transactions'. 5 The WIR refers in this regard to the
increasing number of bilateral investment agreements between developing countries or within regional
integration accords. UNCTAD, according to the WIR, is also promoting discussions for an international
framework to advance understanding on this issue, especially concerning the development dimensions.

2
OECD (1994), The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
3
United Nations Center on Transnational Corporations (1988). The United Nations Code of Conduct on Transnational
Corporations.
4
Greer Jed, Kavaljit Singh (2000). A Brief History of Transnational Corporations. http://globalpolicy.igc.org.
5
UNCTAD (1995). World Investment Report.

70

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1894828

 Hugh Deng, Lindsey Higgs and Victor Chan

A key feature ignored in attempts to define TNCs is that they are having an increasingly powerful impact
on international relations and social development.This impact stems from their significant economic
influence, which in turn leads to leverage with government officials, as well as the extensive financial
resources at their disposal for public relations. By exploring the the evolution of TNCs, we gain a better
understanding of TNCs as not only economic entitities but also as key actors at the global level.

3. Brief review of TNCs

Generally speaking, the earliest historical origins of TNCs can be traced to the major colonising and
imperialist expansions by Western Europe, notably England and Holland. However, there is no consensus
on the first TNC. Some studies pointed out that the Dutch East India Company, established in 1602 when
the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in
Asia, was recognized as the first transnational organization 6 . During this period, firms such as the British
East India Trading Company were formed to promote the trading activities or territorial acquisitions of
their home countries in the Far East, Africa, and the Americas. TNCs, as they are known today, did not
really appear until the 19th century, with the advent of industrial capitalism and by consequence the
development of the factory system.

3.1. TNCs in the 19th and early 20th Centuries

TNCs generally developed with their social and political influence. During the 19th and early 20th
centuries, the search for resources, including minerals, petroleum, and foodstuffs, as well as pressure to
protect or increase markets drove transnational expansion by companies almost exclusively from the US
and a handful of Western European nations. Fuelled by numerous mergers and acquisitions, monopolistic
and oligopolistic concentrations of large transnationals in major sectors such as petrochemicals and food
also took root during this time. The US agribusiness giant United Fruit Company, for example, controlled
90% of US banana imports in 1899, while at the start of World War I, Royal Dutch/Shell accounted for
20% of Russia's total oil production 7 .

Demands for natural resources continued to provide the impetus for European and US corporate ventures
between the World Wars. Although corporate investments from Europe declined somewhat, the activities
of American TNCs expanded strongly. In Japan, the growth of the zaibatsu ("financial clique") including
Mitsui and Mitsubishi dominated the country’s major economic activity during this period. These giant

6
Some argued that the Knights Templar, founded in 1118, became a first multinational when it stumbled into banking in 1135
(see Wikepedia).
7
Dunning, John (1993) Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading,
Massachusetts.

71
 Redefining transnational corporations

corporations, which worked closely with the Japanese state, had oligopolistic control of the nation's
industrial, financial, and trade sectors.

3.2. TNCs from 1945 to the 1970s

With the development of TNCs around the world, the scope of TNCs extended to a deep involvement
with social and political affairs. American TNCs dominated foreign investment activity in the two
decades after the World War II, while European and Japanese corporations also began to play greater
roles in the world. During the 1950s, banks in the US, Europe, and Japan started to invest a large sum of
money in industrial stocks, encouraging corporate mergers and furthering capital concentration. Major
technological advances in shipping, transport (especially by air), computerisation, and communications
accelerated TNCs' increasing internationalisation of investment and trade while new advertising
capabilities helped TNCs to expand market shares. All these trends meant that, by the 1970s, oligopolistic
consolidation and TNCs' role in global commerce was of a far different scale than earlier in the century.
Whereas in 1906 there were two or three leading firms with assets of US $500 million, in 1971 there were
333 such corporations, one-third of which had assets of US $1 billion or more 8 .

Over the past quarter century, there has been a virtual proliferation of transnationals. In 1970, there were
some 7,000 parent TNCs, while today that number has jumped to 38,000 and 90 % are based in the
industrialised world, which controls over 207,000 foreign subsidiaries 9 . Since the early 1990s, these
subsidiaries' global sales have surpassed worldwide trade exports as the principal vehicle to deliver goods
and services to foreign markets.

3.3. TNCs since the late 1970s

Since the late 1970s, there has been a significant increase in TNC investment in the less-industrialized
world; such investment, along with private bank loans, has grown far more dramatically than national
development aid or multilateral bank lending. Correspondingly, TNCs are not only involved in social
development, but also significantly influence global integration and globalization. Burdened by debt, low
commodity prices, structural adjustment policies, and unemployment, governments throughout the
developing world today view TNCs, in the words of the British magazine The Economist, as "the
embodiment of modernity and the prospect of wealth: full of technology, rich in capital, replete with
skilled jobs." As a result, The Economist noted that these governments were "queuing up to attract
multinationals" and liberalising investment restrictions as well as privatising public sector industries 10 .For

8
Greer Jed, Kavaljit Singh (2000). A Brief History of Transnational Corporations. http://globalpolicy.igc.org.
9
Same as above.
10
"Everybody's Favourite Monsters," The Economist, Survey of Multinationals, 27 March 1993

72
 Hugh Deng, Lindsey Higgs and Victor Chan

TNCs, developing countries offer not only the potential for market expansion but often include lower
wages and fewer health and environmental regulations than in the developed countries.

The large number of TNCs can be somewhat misleading. The wealth of transnationals is concentrated
among the top 100 firms that had US $3.4 trillion in global assets in 1992, of which approximately US
$1.3 trillion was held outside their home countries. The top 100 TNCs also account for about one-third of
the combined outward foreign direct investment (FDI) of their countries of origin. Since the mid-1980s, a
huge rise of TNC-led FDI has occurred. Between 1988 and 1993, worldwide FDI stock, a measure of the
productive capacity of TNCs outside their home countries, grew from US $1.1 to US $2.1 trillion in
estimated book value 11 .

The activities and growth of TNCs have been widespread for more than two decades.
Governments and intergovernmental organizations have attempted on several occasions to define
the activities of TNCs at an international level. The most serious of these attempts was initiated
in the 1970s, as developing countries began to assert their interests within the United Nations
system. Agreements designed to guide the activities of TNCs included the United Nations Draft
Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations, the International Labor Organization’s
Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, the
OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and UNCTAD’s Set of Multilaterally Agreed
Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices 12 .

4. TNCs in a global context

In December 1995, UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero declared that FDI had now superseded
trade as the most important mechanism for international economic integration 13 . TNCs’ growing
economic power in the contemporary world is evident in its influence in national affairs, particularly
when it comes to development.

4.1. Influence in national affairs

TNCs' influence over countries, particularly those in the developing world, has not been apparent fully in
total economic power. However, it has been reflected in corporations' willingness and ability to exert
force directly by employing government officials, participating in economic policy making committees
and making financial contributions. Furthermore, TNCs actively connect with developed countries to

11
Greer Jed, Kavaljit Singh (2000). A Brief History of Transnational Corporations. http://globalpolicy.igc.org
12
Friends of the Earth (1998). A History of Attempts to Regulate the Activities of Transnational Corporations: What Lessons can
be Learned. Discussion Paper for a Working Conference: Toward a Progressive International Economy. Washington, DC.
13
Chakravarthi Raghavan(1996), TNCs Control Two-Thirds of World Economy, Third World Network Features. 29 January,
1996

73
 Redefining transnational corporations

further their interests in developing states. In 1954, for instance, the US launched a criticism of
Guatemala to prevent the Guatemalan government from taking compensation and unused land belonging
to the United Fruit Company for redistribution to peasants 14 .

Another example of TNCs' interfering in national affairs occurred in the early 1970s when the
International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) offered the US Central Intelligence Agency US $1 million
to finance a campaign to defeat the candidacy of Salvador Allende in Chilean national elections. Though
this offer was refused, and Allende democratically elected, ITT continued to lobby the US and other
American corporations to promote opposition to Allende through economic pressure including cutting off
credit and providing support to Allende's political rivals. After copper mines in Chile owned by the firms
Kennecott and Anaconda were nationalised, the US took a series of steps, based largely on the
recommendations of ITT, to challenge Allende 15 .

Discovery of ITT's efforts to bring down Allende led to international protest and initiatives in the United
Nations to draft a TNC Code of Conduct to establish guidelines for corporate behaviours. This move was
part of the general concern about the extent of corporations' economic and political influence that
emerged in the 1960s and the 1970s. It also led TNCs to deprive from certain sectors in less-industrialised
countries the ability to make certain changes in the company's investment. Such developments became
provisional obstacles to the expansion of TNCs' economic power. Overall, during the past decades, TNCs
were characterised by increased regional economic integration and the liberalisation of international
markets, such as in Central and Eastern Europe.

4.2. Increasing global integration

TNCs are increasingly global, and integrated through direct involvement in international trade and
development. The post-World War II period witnessed not only a rise in TNCs' control of world trade, but
also the growth of trade within related enterprises of a given corporation, or "intra-company" trade. While
intra-company trade was a feature of TNCs in natural resource products before 1914, such trade in
intermediate products and services is mainly a phenomenon of recent decades. By the 1960s, an estimated
one-third of world trade was intra-company in nature, a proportion that has remained steady to the present
day. The absolute level and value of intra-company trade has increased considerably since that time.
Moreover, 80% of international payments for technology royalties and fees are made on an intra-company

14
Dunning, John (1993). Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy, Addison-Wesley Publishing, Reading, Mass.
USA.
15
Barnet, R.J. and R..M. Muller (1975). Global Reach the Power of the Multinational Corporations. Jonathan Cape. London.

74
 Hugh Deng, Lindsey Higgs and Victor Chan

basis 16 . Below we take a brief look at the TNCs on manipulating prices and particularly on international
development.

4.2.1. Manipulative price transfers

Concerns stemming from intra-company trade relate to the ability of TNCs to maximise profits by
avoiding both market mechanisms and national laws. It has been a widespread technique that TNCs set
prices for transfers of goods, services, technology, and loans between their worldwide affiliates, which
differ considerably from the prices that unrelated firms might pay.

By lowering prices in countries where tax rates are high and raising them in countries with a lower tax
rate, for example, TNCs reduce their overall tax burden, thus boosting their profits. Practically all intra-
company relations including advisory services, insurance, and general management can be categorised as
a transaction and given a price; charges can also be made for brand names, head office overheads, and
research and development. Through their accounting systems, TNCs shift funds around the world to avoid
taxation. Governments, unable to effectively control TNCs' transfer pricing, are therefore under pressure
to lower taxes as a means of attracting investment or keeping a company's operation in their country
(Barnet, et al. 1975).

In countries where government controls prevent companies from setting retail prices above a certain
percentage of prices of imported goods or the cost of production, the firms can inflate import costs from
their subsidiaries and then impose higher retail prices. TNCs can also use overpriced imports or under-
priced exports to circumvent governmental ceilings on profit repatriation, causing nation-states to have
foreign exchange losses. For instance, if a parent company has profitable subsidiaries in a country where
it does not want to be re-invested, this can remit them by overpricing imports into that country. During
the 1970s, investigations found that average overpricing by parent firms on imports by their Latin
American subsidiaries in the pharmaceutical industry was 155%, while imports of dyestuff raw materials
by Indian TNC affiliates were being overpriced between 124 and 147%.18

4.2.2. TNCs and development

Since the 1980s, the involvement of TNCs in international development has accompanied and encouraged
the rise of corporate economic power in the world. With an effort to reduce barriers to trade and
investment in the last decade, TNCs have lobbied actively to shape regional and international markets,
such as Europe's Single Market agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the
Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). For TNCs, free trade lessens

16
UNCTAD(1994). World Investment Report 1994, pp. xxi-xxii & 141-143.

75
 Redefining transnational corporations

governmental restrictions on their movement and ability to maximise returns. "The deregulation of trade
aims to erase national boundaries insofar as these affect economic life," economists Herman Daly and
Robert Goodland noted this in 1993 17 . The following looks at this hypothesis in specifically in relation to
TNCs with development, occupational safety and employment.

TNCs and human health

According to the data, TNC activities generate more than half of the greenhouse gases emitted by the
industrial sector with a serious impact on global warming. TNCs control 50% of all oil extraction and
refining, and a similar proportion of the extraction, refining, and marketing of gas and coal. Additionally,
TNCs have almost exclusive control of the production and use of ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) and related compounds 18 . The policies of national governments to attract TNCs and FDI in a
period of deregulated global trade and investment pose both opportunities and challenges for the
environment and for human development. TNC operations expose workers and communities to an array
of health and ecological degradation. In some situations, these operations also erupt into disasters such as
the gas leak at the Indian subsidiary of the US-based Corporation Union Carbide in Bhopal in 1984 19 .

In destructive minerals extraction, TNCs dominate key industries. In aluminum, for example, just six
companies account for 63% of the mining capacity, 66% of the refining capacity, and 54% of the smelting
capacity. Four TNCs account for half the world's tin smelting capacity. With respect to their influence on
global agriculture, TNCs control 80% of land worldwide which is cultivated for export-oriented crops,
often displacing local food crop production. Twenty TNCs account for about 90% of the sales of
pesticides 20 . Additionally, because TNCs control much of the world's genetic seed stocks as well as
finance the bulk of biotechnology research worldwide, they are poised to reap large financial rewards
from patenting life forms 21 .

TNCs are manufacturing most of the world's chlorine, the basis for some of the most toxic and
bioaccumulative synthetic chemicals known, such as PCBs, DDT, dioxins and furans, chlorinated
solvents, and thousands of other organochlorine compounds 22 . The impact o these chemicals on health

17
Daly, H and R. Goodland (1993), “An Ecological-Economic Assessment of Deregulation of International Commerce under
GATT. World Bank Environment Department, Spring 1993.
18
Makguhabum Arjun, at all (1992). Climate Change and Transnational Corporations Analysis and Trend, UNCTC
Environment Series 2, United Nations, New York, 1992.
19
See Bhopal Information Center at http://www.bhopal.com/.
20
Greer, Jed and Kavaljot Singh (2000). A Brief History of Transnaitonal Corporations. http://globalpolicy.igc.org
21
UNCTC (1991)."Transnational Corporations and Issues Relating to the Environment: The Contribution of the Commission
and UNCTC to the Work of the Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development," UNCTC, 28 February 1991.
22
Greer, Jed and Kavaljot Singh (2000). A Brief History of Transnaitonal Corporations. http://globalpolicy.igc.org.

76
 Hugh Deng, Lindsey Higgs and Victor Chan

may include: immune suppression; birth defects; cancer; reproductive, and neurological harm; and
damage to the liver and other organs. As a group, TNCs lead the export and import of products and
technologies that have been controlled or banned in some countries for health and safety reasons. For
instance 25% of total pesticide exports by TNCs from the US in the late l980s were chemicals that were
banned or withdrawn in the US. A handful of Northern companies are responsible for the nuclear
technology now found at plants in South America and Asia 23 .

The economists Herman Daly and Robert Goodland observed that "the dream that growth will raise world
wages to the current rich country level, and that all can consume resources at the US per capita rate, is in
total conflict with ecological limits that are already stressed beyond sustainability"(Daly & Robert. 1993).
Some studies of TNCs and their business dealings show that deregulated trade and investment produce
growth to reduce poverty and generate resources for environmental protection. However, others indicated
that free trade and investment-based growth, beloved by TNCs, may be a kind of development which has
led to overexploitation of land and natural resources, including air, water, and soil pollution, ozone
depletion, global warming, and toxic waste generation (Jed & Singh. 2000).

TNCs and occupational safety

There have been some instances of TNCs failing to control industrial hazards at their facilities in less-
industrialised countries as thoroughly as in their home countries where more extensive regulations are in
place. The Industrial Labour Organisation (ILO) acknowledges that "In comparing the health and safety
performance of home-based [TNCs] with that of the subsidiaries, it could generally be said that the home
country operations were better than those of subsidiaries in the developing countries." 24

The case of the German TNC Bayer's chromate production factory in South Africa may illustrate this
situation. Chromate is a corrosive compound which can cause respiratory illness, including lung cancer.
Bayer has owned the facility, Chrome Chemicals, since 1968. In 1976, a South African government report
noted health problems in nearly half the plant's employees related to their occupations 25 . In 1990, a trade
union learned that a number of workers developed lung cancer, although none had been informed that the
disease might be related to their employment (Barry 1995).

In South Africa, lung cancer was not added to the list of compensable occupational diseases until 1994,
and Bayer did not provide compensation to the former employees of Chrome Chemicals who had
developed lung cancer. Indeed, German compensation authorities consider any labourer with more than

23
Same as above.
24
Castleman, Barry (1995). The Migration of Industrial Hazards. The Third World Resurgence, August 1995.
25
Same as above.

77
 Redefining transnational corporations

three months of chromate work eligible for compensation if lung cancer develops subsequently. Bayer
could not get away with this in Germany, where lung cancer was considered a compensable occupational
disease for chromate workers as early as 1936 26 .

TNCs and employment

In an era of globalization with reduced constraints on their mobility and the attraction of cheaper labour in
developing countries eager for foreign investment, TNCs are eliminating jobs in their home countries and
shifting production abroad. Although overall employment by TNCs in their home countries has changed
little in the last decade, employment was now lower than it had been in the 1980s among the 300 largest
corporations. US-based TNCs have eliminated jobs vigorously at home in past decades. Between 1982
and 1993, for example, American TNCs cut over three-fourths of one million jobs at home but added 345
thousand jobs outside the country 27 . For workers in the US and other industrialised countries, TNCs are
increasingly willing to move operations to lower wage countries, along with their increased use of
automation, subcontractors, and part-time labour. These rendered the collective bargaining power of trade
unions relatively ineffective.

In less-industrialised regions, the lure for TNCs of lower costs and fewer regulations turned into promises
of decent working conditions, sufficient pay, and job security. More fundamentally, TNCs got involved in
the unemployment problems in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, where an estimated 38 million new job
seekers enter the labour market annually (Jed & Singh. 2000). There have been some studies of TNCs'
outward foreign investment and their estimated global direct employment in recent decades. Between
1975 and 1992, outward FDI stock increased several times, while TNCs' employment also doubled. In
less-industrialised countries, TNCs added five million employees between 1985 and 1992 28 .

5. Concluding remarks

The transnationals' growing influence is perhaps the most striking phenomenon to date of organised
corporate lobbying on international affairs. TNCs' efforts at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 even led to some changes in the Summit's key
documents. The success in Rio of the TNCs lobbying efforts underscores a broader issue: TNCs are
collectively the world's most powerful force in economic and social development, and there is a need for
intergovernmental organisations to concern the essence of TNCs.

26
Same as above.
27
Greer, Jed and Kavaljot Singh (2000). A Brief History of Transnational Corporations. http://globalpolicy.igc.org
28
UNCTAD (1994). World Investment Report 1994.

78
 Hugh Deng, Lindsey Higgs and Victor Chan

To redefine TNCs based on their roles and features in the era of globalization, it is essential for
international organizations to establish guidelines and regulations. Rules established in the GATT
regarding trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) and trade-related investment measures (TRIMs)
are of benefit to TNCs. The first gives corporations greater capacity to privatise and patent life forms,
including plant and other genetic resources of less-industrialised countries. TRIMs render illegal certain
measures which countries, notably states in the southern hemisphere, encourage TNCs to establish
linkages with domestic firms. TRIPs, TRIMs, and other GATT rules fall under the authority of the WTO
that works with the World Bank and other financial institutions to manage global economic policy.

Previously the UN’s efforts to address TNCs' impacts went through the United Nations Centre on
Transnational Corporations (UNCTC). Since the 1990s, the Division on Investment, Technology and
Enterprise Development at UNCTAD has emerged with the aim of promoting foreign direct investment.
Based on our analysis above, the term "TNC" is now taken to mean a for-profit enterprise marked by at
least three characteristics: a) it engages in enough business activities including sales, distribution,
extraction, manufacturing, and research and development; b) it is outside the country of origin so as being
financially dependent on operations in two or more countries; and c) its management decisions and social
influences are based on regional or global forces.

References

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Castleman, B. I. 1995. The migration of industrial hazards. International Journal of Occupational and
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Daly, H., and R. Goodland. 1994. An ecological-economic assessment of deregulation of international commerce
under GATT. Part I. Population and Environment: 395-427.

Friends of the Earth. 1998. A history of attempts to regulate the activities of transnational corporations: What lessons
can be learned. Discussion paper for a Working Conference: Toward a Progressive International Economy.
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Greer, Jed and Kavaljit Singh. 2000. A Brief History of Transnational Corporations. http://globalpolicy.igc.org.

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 Redefining transnational corporations

Makguhabum Arjun et al. 1992. Climate Change and Transnational Corporations: Analysis and Trends, United
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Raghavan, Chakravarthi. 1996. TNCs control two-thirds of the world economy. Third World Network Features 29
January.

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80

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