68 SOCIAL SCIENTIST production, increase manufactures exports of the developing countries and in turn wield their powerful political clout in favour of trade liberalization in these industries. On the other hand, exports of labour intensive, traditional manufactures from the developing countries will compete with smaller firms. Such exports will not be managed by the TNCs and hence have a more "disruptive" effect, bringing forth a clamour for increased protectionism in order to protect employment and wages. The author argues that the result will not be a general increase or decrease in protectionism but rather increased liberalization in areas where intra-firm trade is high and more protectionism for traditional industries. The author backs up his argument with the results of some studies which show that effective rates of protection are positively correlated with unskilled labour intensity in industries and the rates of reduction in effective rates of protection arc positively correlated with capital and technological intensity. The above argument sees no constraints upon the progressive relocation of plants by TNCs and the tendency towards a ''new international division of labour" as they are stimulated by the cheap labour in the developing countries. However, as the crisis in the advanced capitalist countries intensifies and as the pressure of unemployment increases, it is likely that the state would be forced to take steps to curtail the freedom of most of the TNCs and to impose generalized tariffs, in the interests of the stability of the system. This might be made more possible by the interest in protectionism of a large section of firms which could not possibly "go international" and which at the same time find their competitive position eroded even in non-traditional sectors due to the ability of TNCs to take advantage of cheap Third World labour. This book has fulfilled an important task of focussing attention on the role of intra-firm trade. The issues arising from this phenomenon are by no means limited to those considered in this book. The implications of intra-firm trade in the form of transfer pricing, evasion of the developing country's tax and exchange laws, and so on, constitute fields that call for further investigation. VENKATARAMAN BHASKAR St. Stephen's Collage, Delhi.