Among the planks of the NIEO platform that Bhagwati considered most reasonable, and indeed necessary, was the regulation of multinational corporations. Concluding that “there is now clearly scope for a code of conduct on multinationals (MNCs) and their activities in developing countries,” he notes that “until now the developing countries that worried about the MNCs were considered to be somewhat bizarre, if not depraved and corrupted by socialist doctrines.” Referring to a series of events, including the dramatic overthrow of President Allende in Chile, Bhagwati goes on to note that “nothing works to cure one of illusions faster than to be proved naïve by unpleasant revelations. Thus the awareness seems to have grown in influential circles in both the developing and the developed countries that MNCs are a good thing but need to have their international conduct regulated by explicit codes and legal sanctions, including the extension of trust-busting legislation to internal operations in the social interest" (1977, 19–20).

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1779