Expropriation is the term used to describe a government's decision to seize privately owned assets under an assertion of sovereign authority. It is one of the most serious threats to their operations (along with acts of terrorism and civil unrest) that American countries perceive when expanding their business into the developing world.
Expropriation can be direct or indirect, national or international. Indirect expropriation events are sometimes described as creeping or de facto.
Examples of government actions that may amount to expropriation of a private company's assets or property include, but are not limited to, the following:
- confiscation, expropriation, and nationalization of assets
- willful destruction of assets
- passage of new laws that make the business environment unfriendly for foreign investors
- loss of permanent or mobile investments/assets due to acts of government
- currency inconvertibility or transfer
- political violence (including war and terrorism)
- deprivation
- forced abandonment
- forced project relocation
- forced divestiture
- selective discrimination
- third-party blockade
You need to only choose one case of direct expropriation and one case of indirect expropriation or international as the basis for the discussion in your posting.
For each case, describe the nature of the government act, how it affected the private business, what remedies (if any) the American business pursued, and whether it was successful in that pursuit.
One of the tremendous issues in America today is the exporting of jobs to foreign countries. Discuss the effect of this on our current employment rate. Do you feel that businesses should get tax breaks for exporting jobs? In view of this exportation trend, what are your moral and ethical obligations as a business owner to your employees and to the community?