By Aneel Salman
More than any other single institution; transnational corporations (TNCs) are the primary movers and shakers of global economy and a major threat to the economic autonomy of the nation state. They are all over the map through different modes controlling and coordinating transactions within geographically dispersed production networks.
They are one of the influential structures and the fruit of globalization. Through mergers and acquisitions, TNCs have grown into mammoth sizes. Their revenues are far greater than state revenues. Today these corporations are more rich and powerful than many states who seek to control them. It seems reasonable to have regulations at global scale especially when these small national governments seem less capable to control these corporations. Due to globalization, the new international trade rules, investor pressure and weak government tax base, regulations at the national level have weakened.
Corporations are the threat to the culture of countries where they have production units. Trade is an emotionally charged issue, because apart from the exchange and production of goods its shapes our sense of cultural self. TNCs are known as the agents of cultural change. They have plagued developing nations with western consumerism, Coca-Colanization, McDonaldization and Americanization. After denuding the resources and land of their origin countries, they are the neoliberal pirates who colonize and take over the wealth of others. Host countries starved for capital, struggling with poverty have no choice but to open their doors to them, whether they like it or not.
A moving documentary titled 'Sell Off' about Surinam, a small country in South America, shows how their tropical rainforest and dozens of ethnic indigenous groups are under threat by developers from Indonesia who are abusing the country's weak and poor political system to their advantage. Watching this documentary I felt like I was watching a tale from my own country Pakistan since the same kind of ruthless exploitative work is being undertaken there in the heart of the capital city Islamabad whose green belts are have been sold by the military government to make room for a multimillion dollar hotel by a company from the Middle East.
TNCs adhere to regulations in their home countries, but abuse the human rights, labor laws and environment in other countries. Nike, Proctor and Gamble, Shell have proven records in these violations. Many corporations maintain a low standard of environmental regulations in poor countries they operate in. TNCs are major players for carbon emissions, CFCs, timber logging, biodiversity loss, and water/ air pollution. We need regulations to be implemented at global scale on these TNCs. Issues like money laundering, tax evasion, hiding funds in off shore locations, speculation on currencies might enrich few corporations but push millions into poverty and result in financial crises. There is no accountability or check on these corporations. Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffery Sachs famous University of Columbia economists asserted that global capitalism in its present form is unacceptable. Corporations were held accountable for the Bhopal disaster, Shell's actions in Nigeria and Unocal's Burma oil pipeline because of different state laws in specific jurisdictions.
Given the amount of power and money, TNCs have and the poverty and sheer desperation of bad governments, it is very important to have an international tribunal and court of law that can hold these companies at bay, there should be a global TNCs magna carta to protect the most vulnerable in the host countries in which they operate.
