United Nations Code of Conduct for International Business

Moderator
Repository
DigitalGeorgetown
Person Interviewed
Hansen, Peter
Sorzano, Jose
Abstract
Examines the UN’s increasing involvement in international business activity.
Description
In the 1970s the UN began a decade-long trend of increasing involvement in international business activity. In 1974, following serious allegations of wrongdoing leveled against prominent international companies, the UN established the Centre on Transnational Corporations to examine the impact of multinational corporations on international affairs. Almost immediately the Centre came under fire from western businesses and governments, who felt the Centre was taking an unbalanced approach towards its research. The Centre focused its efforts primarily on private western corporations, all but ignoring the actions of state-owned enterprises from Soviet bloc states, leading many to challenge the fairness and accuracy of its reports. In addition to actions taken by the Centre, for more than a decade the third world governments that dominate the UN’s general assembly had been pushing for a code of conduct to regulate the way transnational corporations do business. The proposed code would aim to regulate the activities of transnational corporations in developing countries, eliminate restrictive business practices, and conform corporations to the development goals of the international community. In this episode, host Peter Krogh sits down with Peter Hansen, Executive Director of the UN’s Centre on Transnational Corporations, and Jose Sorzano, former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the UN and a strong critic of the body’s growing efforts to regulate commerce. Together, they examine the proposed code of conduct and its impact on American businesses operating overseas, and ask: should the UN be in the business of regulating multinational corporations?
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Date
1986
Rights
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Subject
Location
International
Publisher
WETA-TV (Television station : Washington, D.C.)
 
Blackwell Corporation (Washington D.C.)
 
Georgetown University. School of Foreign Service
 
South Carolina Educational Television Network
 
Extent
28 min.
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