It depends entirely on the percentage. The enterprise must be at least fifty percent owned by nationals of the treaty country, so a minority American partner is fine and a majority American partner is fatal to the classification. Control terms in a shareholders agreement are examined alongside the raw percentage.
Half is the floor, and side agreements are read too
The rule is arithmetical at its core and then slightly more subtle in application. Renaud can bring in the seller's operations manager, whose knowledge of the ground and the regulator is genuinely valuable, provided treaty nationals retain at least half the ownership. Fifty percent is enough on the ownership test, but the separate requirement that he develop and direct the enterprise means the shareholders agreement should not hand day-to-day control to the minority holder through veto rights, a management contract or a casting vote.
Two practical cautions follow. Structures built in stages, where the American partner starts small and is contractually promised more, are read as they will end rather than as they begin. And ownership held through a holding company does not remove the question, because the nationality of the ultimate owners is what matters.
Settle all of this before the agreement is signed rather than amending it later.