当代世界经济发展的一个重要趋势是各国间国际经济交往越来越多,资本和生产的国际化趋势日益明显,经济生活国际化的程度显著提高。在这一过程中,跨国公司扮演着极为重要的角色。它已成为现代资本主义占主导地位的组织形式。在世界众多的跨国公司中,活动最为积极、实力最为强大的是美国跨国公司。有人曾戏称美国的海外企业为世界上第三大国,因为除美国和苏联外,它们的全部产品比任何国家都多。在《幸福》杂志统计的100家最大工业跨国公司中,1956年美国曾占了79家,处于绝对优势地位。七十年代以来,其他发达国家作为整体才与美国势均力敌。从1950年到1986年,美国跨国公司的对外直接投资额以每年9%的速度递增。1985年美国500家最大的工业公司(基本上都是跨国公司)的销售额 An important trend in the development of the contemporary world economy is the increasing number of international economic exchanges among countries, the increasingly internationalization of capital and production, and the significant increase in the degree of internationalization of economic life. In this process, transnational corporations play an extremely important role. It has become the dominant organizational form of modern capitalism. Among the many multinational corporations in the world, the most active and most powerful are U.S. multinational corporations. Some people have jokingly called American overseas companies the third largest country in the world because, with the exception of the United States and the Soviet Union, they have more products than any other country. Among the 100 largest industrial multinational corporations in the “Happiness” magazine’s statistics, the United States had 79 in 1956 and was in an absolute dominant position. Since the 1970s, other developed countries as a whole have been evenly matched with the United States. From 1950 to 1986, the amount of foreign direct investment of multinational corporations in the United States increased at an annual rate of 9%. Sales of the 500 largest industrial companies (basically multinationals) in the United States in 1985