IP in the globalized economy performs a function directly analogous, as the basis in privilege for cartels and trusts, as tariffs did in the old national industrial economies.

With the exception of a few old-line players like textiles and steel, the corporate economy sees tariffs as an impediment to the free flow of money and unfinished goods among a TNC’s sub-divisions around the world. Patents and copyrights, on the other hand, enable the Western-owned corporation to operate as a global organization with production facilities in many TW countries, while protecting it from “foreign” (i.e., indigenously owned) competition.