New international division of labour

The term was coined by theorists seeking to explain the spatial shift of manufacturing industries from advanced capitalist countries to developing countries—an ongoing geographic reorganisation of production, which finds its origins in ideas about a global division of labor.

[1] It is a spatial division of labor which occurs when the process of production is no longer confined to national economies.

Under the "old" international division of labor, until around 1970, underdeveloped areas were incorporated into the world economy principally as suppliers of minerals and agricultural commodities.

Companies do so by taking advantage of transportation and communications technology, as well as fragmentation and locational flexibility of production.

[4] The NIDL is a spatial division of labor due to cut ties with national economies.