ABSTRACT
There is now a growing body of literature on the causes and effects of the integration of cross-border activities by and within multinational enterprise (MNEs),1 hereafter called corporate integration - and an even more voluminous literature on the economic integration of countries within regions of countries,2 hereafter called regional integration. Yet, so far, there have been few attempts systematically to analyze the interaction between the two kinds of integration.3 In the 1960s and 1970s, there were some attempts by economists to explore the consequences of the formation of regional associations, e.g. EEC and EFTA in Europe,4 and those in some developing countries, e.g. LAFTA in Latin America,s on both the location of new foreign direct investment within these regions, and the industrial and marketing strategies of MNEs (Behrman, 1972). Studies on the way in which the activities of MNEs may affect the propensity of countries to engage in regional co-operation and the outcome of such co-operation, have generally tended to be more political in their orientation (Mytelka, 1979), though Constantine Vaitsos, writing for the UNCTC (1982), has made a brave attempt to identify some of the ways in which the cross-border activity of firms has influenced the thinking of governments - and particularly those of developing countries - towards intra-regional co-operation.
