ABSTRACT
This chapter draws distinctions between the advanced-industrial countries the newly-industrialising countries in their contributions to the global electronics industry. The predominance of United States (US) and Japanese producers across the board is reflected in patterns of international trade. Electronics-based goods were estimated as accounting for 40 per cent of the Japanese trade surplus with the USA in 1985. The Europeans are agitated by the knowledge that, in spite of 30 per cent growth rates, their personal computer makers remain almost wholly reliant on Japanese supplies of memory chips and American deliveries of microprocessors. Compounding the problem is the fact, galling to nationalists and pan-European idealists alike that many of the manufacturers domiciled in- Europe are foreign subsidiaries anyway. The trans-national corporation’s presence may induce the appearance of ancillary activities into the bargain. East Kilbride, for example, houses the first European office of the US software consultancy, PRTM.
