On Curbing the Power of Multi-National Corporations

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 The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty. -Abraham Lincoln

Multi national is the new monopoly. Traditional corporations soon won’t exist in a global world.  Multi-national corporations are slowly becoming the state of things.   Large beings like Inbev, Sab miller, GE, et. al. are so huge and so diverse that one country can rarely lay claim to being the center of the corporations world.   Many of these corporate giants are themselves so large they have greater GDP than a large percentage of countries.

How would we seek to regulate such large corporations when -not if- their abuses rise?  The markets demands freedom (says any economist) but as the same economist knows, the trend of business is toward establishing Monopolies.  Without some (minimal consumer protection) We would all eventually be ruled by multi-national corporations that dwarf governments. 

The EU has stumbled right into the solution of course: Economic Unions.  These areas -which will have to get bigger in many cases- Enable multiple countries to negotiate in multiple ways again a Multinational corporation.  But simply having a trade bloc is not the key.  The EU has a unique circumstance.  It has also monetary control, a “federal type control structure” and free trade and work zones that contribute to it’s success.   Basically If the EU agrees to something trade wise, France or Belgium is not allowed to go around it; unlike say if Africa has a trade agreement, Darfur or Egypt may decide to do a private deal.

The US -and now the EU- are big enough to do have economic power and force multi-national corporations to do things they would normally not do, of course because these economic unions have a lucrative enough market to impact corporation earnings, however, at this moment and Time, I can’t see Venezuela abiding by what Brazil may do, (For a South American Region) or Russia going along with Kazakhstan even thou they have free trade areas.  Until there are economic unions and like parities, MNC (multi-national corporations ) will always have the upper hand in deciding not only where they sell, but to whom and how much.

OceansOfThought @ April 17, 2008