ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the emerging international standards of corporate conduct as reflected in the agreed provisions of the UN Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations (TNCs). The Code seeks to prescribe standards of corporate conduct in international business, particularly vis-a-vis host countries, and also minimum principles to be observed by host countries in their treatment of TNCs. The Code provides an international framework for resolving this perennial conflict by spelling out sensible and meaningful principles of good corporate citizenship in the area of international business. One of the most persistent and intractable sources of tension in the relations between the governments and TNCs is the practice of abusive transfer pricing in intra-corporate relations. The foregoing provision thus prescribes an international yardstick for corporate conduct in addition to the requirement of compliance with national laws, regulations, policies and practices. It has been said that such a normative exercise would inaugurate a major international regulatory system that would stifle international business.
