Swiss Multinationals and the Creation of International Corporate Guidelines in the 1970s

What is it about?

During the last decade, we have seen an increased opposition to globalization. Within this wave of criticism, firms and more specifically multinational corporations have been major targets, accused of multiple wrongdoings, such as social dumping, fiscal evasion, job cuts, trade deficits, abuses of power, and environmental damages. In many respects, this debate echoes the one that took place during the 1970s with respect to oil shocks, de-industrialization, and imperialism. Atthattime,severalinternationalorganizations,suchastheOECD,ECOSOC,ILO, and the European Community started to address the issue of multinationals and international investments, andadvocated forthe creation ofguidelinesto regulate their activities. The following paper explores the reactions of Swiss multinationals totheseattempts,aswellastheirstrategiesforprotectingtheirlatitudeinconducting business. Relying on archival material of the Swiss Union of Commerce and Industry and ofthe Federal Archives, thispaper showshowthebiggest companies in the pharmaceutical, machine, and food processing industries—all of them still being global players —decided to create a task force to deal with these emerging regulations at the international level.

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