Coopération industrielle Est-Ouest dans l'automobile et modalités d'insertion des pays de l'Est dans la division internationale du travail occidentale (IIe partie)

Abstract

East-West Industrial Cooperation in the Car Industry and Ways of Involving the Countries of Eastern Europe in the International Division of Labour in the West (Part II). It would seem that greater in-depth analysis of industrial cooperation by individual sector is a pre-requisite for assessment and definition of probable developments in the field of cooperation/competition, and consequently of the effect which this may have upon the stability of the International Division of Labour in the West. The move towards increasingly advanced forms of East-West industrial cooperation in the motor-car industry — particularly the increasingly frequent use of compensation — has brought about a radical change: the transition from international exchange to the internationalization of production. This change in character entails integration of the production process, which the traditional import/export view of international trade cannot take account of, and of which it cannot a fortiori appreciate the full extent. This analysis, therefore, is concerned with the extent to which East-West industrial co-operation agreements made between the leading Western car manufacturers—essentially multi-national firms — and the countries of Eastern Europe represent a corresponding internationalization of expanding production in the socialist countries. However, the setting-up of production units in the countries of the Eastern zone helps to increase the latter's export potential, and it is important to assess accurately what this might mean in terms of a future threat to western markets, particularly those of Europe. Finally, it is important to investigate the ways in which the International Socialist Division of Labour and the International Division of Labour interrelate, in order to establish whether the activities of representatives of one bloc vis-a-vis the other are carried out in accordance with, or even in furtherance of, the aims of the appropriate IDL, or if on the contrary they are functioning at cross- purposes.