The Globalization of Markets and Regional Integration
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A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Welfens, Paul J. J. Article — Digitized Version The globalization of markets and regional integration Intereconomics Suggested Citation: Welfens, Paul J. J. (1989) : The globalization of markets and regional integration, Intereconomics, ISSN 0020-5346, Verlag Weltarchiv, Hamburg, Vol. 24, Iss. 6, pp. 273-281, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02924734 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/140211 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION Paul J. J. Welfens* The Globalization of Markets and Regional Integration The 1980s have witnessed the globalization of markets and an intensified international competition. The rise of the newly industrializing countries and the growth of multinational enterprises - developing parallely to foreign direct investments - have contributed considerably to this trend. However, there are factors suggesting that the intensification of market competition might be only a transitory phenomenon. ollowing the persistent internationalization of [] the increased merger and acquisition activity in the F economic relations during the 1960s and 1970s - USA during the 1980s; which was chiefly confined to the OECD countries and [] the increasingly significant phenomenon of new took the form of growing trade flows and a profounder forms of non-equity corporate cooperation (e.g. cross- international division of labour - a new phenomenon licensing, joint ventures) which are also gradually arose in the 1980s. By pursuing outwardly oriented beginning to include multinational corporations from the policies on development, trade and industry, the newly NICs; industrializing countries (NICs) have contributed to an intensification of competitive processes around the [] the creation of the EC's internal market by 1992 and world: quite apart from their traditionally important role the keenness, prompted by technological factors, to on the demand side, they now occupy an ever more carry out amalgamations among European companies, significant position as suppliers on the world markets, a many of which in turn have capital ties with US or, less clear reflection of how quickly these countries have frequently, Japanese corporations. caught up in technological terms. By the mid-1980s, the A reflection of international interdependence in terms NICs' share of the supply of manufactured products in of ownership participation is provided by the flow of the USA had reached almost 2.5 %, with much higher direct foreign investment, but the new forms of values being recorded among the OECD countries in cooperation are difficult to show statistically; specific fields. Japan, whose comparatively limited nevertheless, the fact that 85 % of international trade in imports relative to its domestic value creation reflect the technology is concentrated among companies from just export impediments of which foreign suppliers 10 market-economy, industrial countries - and that complain, stands alone in showing a very low and barely these are all among the top 15 countries for direct increasing rate of import penetration from the NICs? investment - suggests that direct investment and Thus, as in Japan's case, there are gaps in the technology trade operate substantially in parallel. 3 intensification of worldwide competitive processes; other regions which have been only indirectly affected by intensifying supply competition in the past but which 1 To this must be added the observation that Japan has a very low level of intra-industry trade compared with other OECD countries, although are now gradually opening to world trade are Eastern this is now slowly beginning to grow; cf. R.Z. L a w r e n c e : Imports in Europe and a host of developing countries. 2 Japan: Closed Markets or Minds?, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1987, pp. 517-548. Yet at the same time the question arises as to whether 2 The stagnation in the growth of per capita income in the CMEA countries since 1975 and the fact that they have fallen behind the NICs the globalization of world markets is really any more on a relative basis as the latter rapidly gained ground both in terms of than a temporary intensification of competition. The technology and of average incomes can be presumed to be a major factor in the reform process which has been underway in the CMEA question is prompted by considerations such as: countries since 1985; cf. P. J. J. We I f e n s : Growth, Innovation and International Competitiveness, in: tNTERECONOMICS, Vol. 22, No. 4, 1987, pp. 168-174; K. Z. Poznanski: Technology, Competition & * University of Duisburg, West Germany; American Institute for the Soviet Bloc in the World Market, Berkeley (Institute of International Contemporary German Studies/Johns Hopkins University, Washington, Studies) 1987; D. C a s s e I : Wirtschaftssysteme im Umbruch, Men- USA. chen 1989. INTERECONOMtCS, November/December 1989 273 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION On the strength of greater involvement through direct Intensification of World Market Competition investment, there is also a growing interdependence of The interlocking capital and trade ties between Japan industry among the leading industrial nations, although and the USA clearly indicate the intensified here too there are substantial instances of asymmetry. internationalization (both direct and indirect) of the two Within the triangle of the USA, Japan and the EC, Japan economies. This has also been accompanied by is indeed an important source country for direct intensification of the processes of competition;as far as investment, reflecting its balance-of-payments dynamic competitive functions are concerned the surpluses during the 1970s and 1980s: the relative Japanese incursions into US markets must undoubtedly growth in Japan's contribution to direct foreign be viewed in a positive light. Reservations appear more investment becomes clear from the increase in its share justified, though, on the competition policy aspects of of the global total which rose from 0.7 % in 1960 to 6.6 % the NUMMI joint-venture project between General in 1980 and 11.7% in 1985. Yet, whereas Japanese Motors and Toyota to produce vehicles in the USA outward investment in the USA and EC countries plays granted approval in 1984 with limited conditions an important part, direct investment flows in the imposed by the FTC;7 this applies all the more in that opposite direction remain relatively limited; its 1% share the US vehicle manufacturing industry already has of the global total for inward direct investment in 1985 is shareholdings in competing companies from Japan. disproportionately low when set against Japan's share The joint production of a pick-up vehicle by Volkswagen of world GNP; the corresponding shares for Western and Toyota which began in West Germany during 1989 is Europe and the USA were approximately 29 % .4 analogous to the NUMMI project, reflecting Western The process of dismantling overt restrictions on direct Europe's involvement in resource cooperation and investment in Japan which began in 1979 (the Foreign supply-side links between leading automobile Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law as amended manufacturing countries. by law No. 65, 1979) has so far only produced a In the 1990s, such technologically determined negligible expansion in such investment; the source of incentives to cooperate or merge will be added to by the problem lies in take-over difficulties peculiar to other tendencies towards the formation of oligopolies in Japan, in widespread staff recruiting problems for newly world markets induced by integration policy; depending established operations due to the principle of lifetime on how many suppliers are present and on the level of service which prevails in major Japanese companies, product differentiation (in which innovation plays a major and in the real appreciation of the yen since 1984.5 The part), the danger is that despite a short-term rapid growth in foreign direct investment out of Japan is intensification of global competitive processes, in the generating an increase in the ratio of production long term restrictive practices may gain the upper hand manufactured abroad (by Japanese companies) to the in many industries within the world economy. Because country's domestic production: this ratio was 3.1% in of its static and dynamic economies of scale, the 1986 and is expected to rise to 12 % by