ABSTRACT
This chapter examines that the international procurement and sales behaviour of multinational enterprises (MNEs), with the focus on East Asia. Developing East Asia has been experiencing a surge in foreign direct investment. By the mid to late 1980s, foreign affiliates generated a significant proportion of the exports of many host countries, in the manufacturing sector in particular, notwithstanding the significant growth of exports by local firms. The large share of MNEs in Singapore's exports of manufactures reflects not only their dominance in the manufacturing sector but also their high export orientation. US offshore production in the developing economies has consistently been worth less than US manufactured exports. US tariff provisions 807.00 and 806.30, for example, have contributed to the growth of offshore processing and intrafirm transactions. US firms had a 40.3 per cent share of total exports, followed by Japanese and Europe firms.
