Throughout the 1990s the American International Group (AIG) was actively engaged in the process of international trade liberalization and faced a number of challenges to its existing investments in a set of countries during this period. These episodes have encouraged the development of a new principle in trade liberalization: the grandfathering principle. This case study chronicles the company's efforts to maintain its investments in a set of countries - most notably in Malaysia and China - focusing on the development of the grandfathering principle throughout this process.
Originally Published in: Beckner, C. (2002). American International Group: Trade Liberalization and the Grandfathering Principle. Case 283. Washington, DC: Georgetown Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.