The ownership of affiliates of international companies has become a critical issue in many host countries. Inevitably, the issue of ownership has become a serious matter for the parent companies. In the discussion that has developed, things are not always what they seem, or what is presumed to be the case. Reality diverges from several unexamined presumptions.

That host countries take the question of ownership very seriously is evident from the increasing requirements that foreign shareholdings be sold to locals or to the government itself, from the regulations preventing new acquisitions of existing companies (thereby reducing the shifts in ownership to foreigners), and from the moves toward bringing labor into ownership. This last item is represented by the comtnunidad industrial of Peru, which progressively hands over1 to labor larger percentages of the shares, and by those in Europe who advocate that labor take over ownership and control of some companies or industries.