present format of the code was feasible. The participants made a nwnber of suggestions on specific outstanding issues. These are reflected in the report on the symposium, which is ·_reproduced in the annex below. II. A CHANGING INVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT 5. Last year's report to the Commission on the code of conduct outlined a number of recent developments in international economic conditions and relations of relevance to the code. Those.developments and their implications for current code discussions have been further analysed in a recent study prepared by UNCTC. l/ The main findings of that study are swnmarized -in the present report. 6. The birth of numerous independent and sovereign States and the expansion of transnational corporations in the period after the Second World War gave impetus to the debate on a code of conduct for transnational corpora _tions. Support for the code emerged primarily in the developing world but. also in the industrialized home countries of transnational corporations, particularly in academia and among the ranks of organized consumer, environmental and labour groups. In the case of the latter, fear of job loss through transfer of plants abroad raised intense and active interest in the elaboration of standards on corporate responsibility, concerning, in particular, . information disclosure and lab.our management . relations for transnational corporations. These and other concerns of a transnational nature, such as the discovery of widespread use of illicit payments by transnational corporations to obtain business abroad, led some of the major industrialized countries in that early period to press for int.ernational standards for foreign investment at the United Nations. The Intergovernmental Working Group entrusted with the preparation of the code reached tent~tive agreement, in a very short time, on the large majority of the provisions of the draft code,. including most of the provisions in the section dedicated to the behaviour of transnational 
**Analysis**
The text appears to be discussing the development of a code of conduct for transnational corporations, which suggests that the topic is related to international economic conditions and relations. The text also mentions the birth of independent and sovereign states, the expansion of transnational corporations, and the concerns of consumer, environmental, and labour groups, which implies a connection to economic development and international trade.

**Category**
International trade, Industry