Business operations abroad pay off at home

The perception is that the foreign operations of US multinationals are at the expense of the US economy but the facts say otherwise, writes Laura Tyson

AT A recent conference in Washington, DC, former treasury secretary Larry Summers said US policymakers should focus on productive activities that take place in the United States and employ American workers, not on corporations that are legally registered in the US but locate production elsewhere.

He cited research by former labour secretary Robert Reich, who, over 20 years ago, warned that as US multinational companies shifted employment and production abroad, their interests were diverging from the country’s economic interests.