Companies should expect “increased scrutiny, broader sector coverage, and potentially longer review timelines” for investments in Europe due to new and changing foreign direct investment screening regulations, Morgan Lewis said last week in a client alert.
The EU and the Czech Republic should reject India-based Aurobindo Pharma’s proposed $5.5 billion acquisition of Prague-based Zentiva, the Coalition for a Prosperous America said Aug. 20, arguing that the deal would threaten European pharmaceutical security because of Aurobindo’s connection to China.
The Treasury Department is making progress in its effort to document the process that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. uses to reach consensus on enforcing mitigation agreements, the Government Accountability Office said Aug. 19.
The Trump administration's executive order last month to unwind the years-old purchase of audiovisual technology equipment supplier Jupiter Systems by China-based Suirui Group (see 2507100058) is the latest sign that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is digging far back to find transactions that could hurt U.S. national security, ArentFox said Aug. 7 in a client alert.
The U.S. should persuade other countries to limit Chinese investments in critical mineral industries, similar to restrictions overseen by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., the Commerce Department’s Environmental Technologies Trade Advisory Committee said in a recent letter to Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The new U.S. outbound investment regulations appear so far to be blunting American investments in sensitive Chinese technology sectors, even for investments that only require a notification to the Treasury Department, law firm Sidley Austin said in a client alert this month.
The Trump administration plans to take several steps to address foreign ownership of American farmland, including pursuing congressional and state legislation and executive action to ban purchases by China and other foreign “adversaries,” USDA announced July 8.
Recent Japanese regulatory reforms and increased enforcement could signal a more "assertive stance” around foreign investment screening, Freshfields said in a client alert last week. The trend in Japan appears to mirror developments with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which “has become increasingly assertive in reviewing foreign direct investment.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order June 19 giving China’s ByteDance an additional 90 days, or until Sept. 17, to find a buyer for TikTok or face a U.S. ban on the popular social media application.
Representatives of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission officially began negotiations June 17 on updated foreign direct investment screening rules with the aim of reaching a political agreement on a final text. The talks started days after EU member state representatives finalized their negotiating position (see 2506120057) and a month after the parliament approved the updates (see 2505090020), which would add more sectors to the scope of FDI restriction, allow the European Commission to intervene in member state disagreements and more. The EU didn't provide a timeline for when talks are expected to conclude.