Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0 (A), Uppsala University (Business Studies), course: Managing of International Business, language: English, abstract: "WTO REACHED AGREEMENT for talks on a global trade deal.A seven-year struggle ended in Qatar when delegates put together a trade-liberalization agenda to open markets between rich and poor nations. If ensuing negotiations are successful, companies from wealthy nations would get better access to markets in poor nations, which in turn would receive greater foreign investment.."This and other articles with such a statement appear in great number in today's daily press. The trend is given by globalisation and free trade. The spread of market based economic systems, trade agreements like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), institutions like the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a better cultural understanding, push the boundaries of bargaining and trading far beyond the borders of an individual country.Multinational Companies (MNC) are dominating the Fortune and Global 500. Their economies are comparable to those of countries'. They offer thousands of workplaces and represent a phenomenon in strategy and structure, which is thoroughly investigated by economic and business researchers: Why do MNCs emerge? How do they go abroad? What strategies and structures can be found? In what way do MNCs differ to domestic firms? How can emerging complexity be handled? These are only some of the questions, which have to be answered.The key point is to utilize the absolute advantages, the comparative advantage, or the 'diamond', which are offered by special countries, and thus gain competitive advantage for the company. The attractiveness of a country is determined by its market size, education and living standards, costs, political, legal and economical risks, long-run benefits, ethnical issues and cultural factors. It makes sense to disperse a firms value chain activities to those places where they can be performed most efficiency or where they have the greatest value for the company. Therefore a company can go abroad to invest in foreign countries.