THE DUNKEL TEXT 109 THE WIDER CONTEXT It is necessary but not sufficient to recognise why and how the Uruguay Round is different from the earlier rounds of multilateral trade negotiations. The differences are much wider and deeper than its enlarged scope. The Uruguay Round is an ambitious and complex endeavor at many levels so that tt is possible to miss the wood for the trees. In my judgement, an overall perspective is essential because the whole of the Uruguay Round is much greater than the sum total of its parts. Outside the limelight, in a setting of business as usual, the Uruguay Round is de facto engaged in defining the parameters and writing the rules for international economic relations between countries at very different levels of development. It is a new international regime in the making that extends beyond the movement of goods across national boundaries to international flows of services, capital, technology, information and personnel. This is the outcome of a planned strategy and orchestrated tactics adopted by the major industrialised countries. The object of the exercise is to put together, piece by piece in a jigsaw, the structure of a new system with corresponding rules of the game, in conformity with the perception and the interests of the industrialised countries in the world economy. The political economy of the Uruguay Round is easier to discern in the context of the new issues when juxtaposed with the moves for institutional reform and change. GATT type rules and principles, with provision for dispute settlement, compensation and retaliation, are sought to be extended to international trade in services, international investment flows and international transactions in technology. It is an altogether different world from the traditional concerns of GATT relating to border restrictions on trade in goods. The quest for international regimes of discipline on trade ins ervices, trade-related investment measures and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights is closely inter twined with the interests of the transnational corporations, which are capital-exporters and technology-leaders in the world economy and for whom the new issues represent the final frontier in their global reach. The organisation of production, trade and distribution on a world scale requires the unfettered movement of not only goods but also services, capital, technology and information across national boundaries. From the viewpoint of transnational corporations, it is preferable that these rights are incorporated in multilateral frameworks, which give them legal rights, instead of bilateral concessions which they then would have to obtain through negotiations with national governments. It is plausible to suggest that the Uruguay Round represents a systematic endeavor on the part of the United States and the major industrialised countries to re-design the rules and the parameters which govern the functioning of the world economy, in part to suit the interests of transnational corporations for