Technology Transfer to Developing Countries: Implications of International Regulation

Technology imports are central to the economic performance and development prospects of poor nations. However, while imported technology has helped some nations to achieve rapid industrialization, critics have pointed to a host of actual and potential abuses in the laissez-faire transfer process. As early as the 1960s, developing countries began to adopt national policies regulating technological imports, with particular attention to transactions with Northern multinational corporations. Some of the same nations have led a drive within the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to establish an international code of conduct governing North-South technology transfer. This article examines motives for and probable consequences of an international code, focusing on the implications of international policies toward technology transfer for the effectiveness of existing national regulation.