This research examines the strategy of the Ford Motor Company in the conduct of its European operations. Consideration of a European strategy is particularly relevant for American firms, as the date 1 January 1992 for further economic integration within the European Community approaches.
The European Community 1992 and Beyond
Should all go as planned, most of the economic barriers which now separate the member countries of the European Economic Community will disappear on 1 January 1992.1 More complete economic integration is intended to bring about the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor within the community states, and provide more than 320 million Europeans with barrier free commerce similar to interstate commerce enjoyed within the United States.2
The European Economic Community has emerged as one of the three world economic powers, along with the United States and Japan. Non member states of the Community are apprehensive over the implications of both further economic and political integration of the organization of nations. Some problems, however, exist with respect to the additional economic integration scheduled for 1992.3 Although details of taxation
1S. Tully, "Europe Gets Ready for 1992," Fortune, 1 February 1988, 81.
2J. Doyle, "The Economic Superstate," Commonweal, 115 (1987): 549 51.
3S. Tully, "Europe Hits the Brakes," Fortune, 17 December 1990, 133 134, 136, 138.
programs and welfare schemes are not specifically addressed in the Single Act of Luxembourg, which is the implementing legislation for 1992. The Single Act, however, does proscribe the use of such factors to deny the free movement of goods and services within the European Economic Community4 The Single Act also prescribes reciprocity between member countries. Thus, persons who work in a member country other than their citizenship country will be entitled to all of the social benefits of the host country, and wi...