China's direct investments abroad, in firms and factories, amount to less than Sweden's.
The IRGC controls a big chunk of the 70% or so of Iran's economy that is state-run, with stakes in everything from dental and eye clinics to car factories and construction firms.
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There are also worries that friction with China over exchange rates and other issues could damage the interests of American tech firms which have Chinese subcontractors and factories.
Japanese firms are closing factories and laying off staff in the face of declining demand and a rising yen.
Firms often subcontracted manufacturing to different factories and achieved neither economies of scale nor the standardization necessary to mass-produce green homes, according to Allison Arieff, a former editor in chief of Dwell magazine and an influential figure in the modern prefab movement.
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But the bill still only allows a limited number of international offsets, and factories that compete with American firms would not be eligible.
Enterprise software from firms such as SAP, Oracle and Baan has factories and accounting departments running smoothly, more or less, but marketing is still in a digital dark age.
Multinational firms like Intel, Texas Instruments and Philips all have factories in the Philippines.
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Foreign garment firms conduct safety audits of factories they use, and normally avoid those based in mixed-use commercial buildings like Rana Plaza because having multiple tenants increases the possibility of hazards like blocked fire exits.
Peter Blair, an analyst at Salomon Brothers, an investment bank, points out that other countries' big chemical firms have larger, more efficient factories powered by cheaper electricity and more productive workers.
American firms in particular have long favoured Ireland as a place to set up factories and run service facilities thanks to its well-educated labour force and low corporate-tax rate.
His organisation's members are the firms that deliver the food to the shops, parcels to households, and supplies to factories.
True, too, several Israeli firms have set up factories, mainly for textiles, in low-wage Jordan and Egypt, and these are already showing promising profits.
But Mr Lederer has collected systematic data on how firms themselves decide to price their products, after they have put factories in place and seen how competitors respond.
Many components, such as batteries and touchscreens, receive their final processing in China in factories owned by foreign firms.
For example, driven by the advice of consultants and the demands of customers, most firms are anxious to squeeze ever faster response times out of their factories.
And whether licensed or not, nearly all the grey market firms place orders with mobile phone component companies that work with major manufacturers as well, which keeps factories up and running especially as handset sales plummet amidst the economic downturn.
They have allowed some of the country's biggest industrial firms to foster more pliant company unions, such as Ford's, and many maquiladora (free zone) factories along Mexico's northern border get away with unions that are registered (thus excluding any others) but otherwise non-existent.
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Firms must make sure that the goods they produce are safe for consumers, that their workers are healthy and that their factories and products do not cause damage to the environment.
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