ABSTRACT
What is especially interesting about US policy towards transnational is that there has been such a lively public debate on the regulation of such firms, with the administration resisting Congressional calls for a more active stance in monitoring and regulating US and foreign-based transnational. On the one hand, the US has set up a specific agency to examine worrisome inward investments and to develop policy, it has scrutinised a number of investments, it has extended government powers to look at the ‘national security’ implications of investments, and in more than one case the government has gained assurances from incoming transnationals on their activities, and in another intervened to encourage a domestic ownership solution for a US high technology firm that was the target for a foreign transnational. On the other hand, it is clear that these have been isolated examples of action, and that the full potential of the agency looking at inward investments has not been realised. To the consternation of many, the US administration and the Treasury in particular have opposed calls for government action and has failed to carry out the intent of Congress (Spencer, 1991). By offering a historical perspective on US policy, we hope to make these points clear.
