A partial U.S. government shutdown Oct. 1 likely would slow but not stop the work of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., Freshfields said in a client alert Sept. 30.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., introduced a bill last week to direct the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to prioritize convincing Canada and Mexico to institute a foreign investment review board similar to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS.
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.”