ABSTRACT
In the early nineties, many restrictions and conditions for FDI were eliminated. Multinational corporations were encouraged to establish subsidiaries and the equal treatment of local and national capital was institutionalized. The Mercosur process also resulted in a considerable expansion of intra-regional trade flows, which in turn attracted foreign investment from beyond Mercosur’s borders. Where FDI averaged US $3 billion per year through the 1980s by the end of the 1990s these figures were averaging US $40 billion.
