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"Large multinationals have several advantages over other companies. For instance, multinationals can often overcome trade problems. Taiwan and South Korea have long had an embargo against Japanese cars for political reasons and to help domestic automakers. Yet Honda USA, a Japanese-owned company based in the United States, sends Accords to Taiwan and Korea. In another example, when the environmentally conscious Green movement challenged the biotechnology research conducted by BASF, a major German chemical and drug manufacturer, BASF moved its cancer and immune-system research to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Another advantage for multinationals is their ability to sidestep regulatory problems. U.S. drugmaker SmithKline and Britain’s Beecham decided to merge in part so that they could avoid licensing and regulatory hassles in their largest markets. The merged company can say it’s an insider in both Europe and the United States. “When we go to Brussels, we’re a member state [of the European Union],” one executive explains. “And when we go to Washington, we’re an American company.” Multinationals can also shift production from one plant to another as market conditions change. When European demand for a certain solvent declined, Dow Chemical instructed its German plant to switch to manufacturing a chemical that had been imported from Louisiana and Texas. Computer models help Dow make decisions like these so it can run its plants more efficiently and keep costs down. The World’s Top 11 Largest Multinational Corporations RANK RANK COMPANY Revenues ($M) Home Country 1 Walmart $482,130 United States 2 State Grid $329,601 China 3 China National Petroleum $299,271 China 4 Sinopec Group $294,344 China 5 Royal Dutch Shell $272,156 Netherlands 6 Exxon Mobil $246,204 United States 7 Volkswagen $236,600 Germany 8 Toyota Motor $236,592 Japan 9 Apple $233,715 United States 10 BP $225,982 United Kingdom 11 Berkshire Hathaway $210,821 United States. Source: Adapted from “The World’s Largest Corporations,” Fortune http://fortune.com/global500/, accessed June 30,"