Please join Baker McKenzie and the Customs and International Trade Bar Association’s (CITBA) National Security and Sanctions Committee for a hybrid roundtable discussion on Tuesday, September 16, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM EDT.The discussion will focus on the current landscape of the Treasury’s inbound and outbound investment rules, including CFIUS updates and the evolving outbound screening framework, with featured panelists Rod Hunter, Partner at Baker McKenzie and Nova Daly, Senior Public Policy Advisor at Wiley…
In brief On 22 July 2025, the UK Cabinet Office made three major announcements relating to the National Security and Investment Act (“NSI Act”), which embodies the UK’s foreign direct investment (“FDI”) screening process. Firstly, the UK Government confirmed its intention to create exemptions to the NSI Act regime for certain types of internal reorganisations. Secondly, it launched a planned consultation on a raft of proposed changes to the notifiable sectors, including the introduction of…
In brief On 23 June 2025, the UK government published its Modern Industrial Strategy paper (the “Strategy Paper”). Among other important proposed reforms to corporate governance and regulatory red-tape, the Strategy Paper sets out plans to hold a 12-week consultation period (the “Consultation”) to identify areas of the National Security and Investment Act 2021 (“NSIA”) mandatory notification sector definitions that could be amended to encourage inbound foreign direct investment (“FDI”) to the UK. The Strategy…
On 8 May 2025, the European Parliament adopted an amended proposal to revise the EU Foreign Direct Investment Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/452) (the “FDI Regulation”), amending the proposal originally published by the EU Commission and significantly deviating from it in certain important areas. The FDI Regulation revisions will bring into force significant changes to the foreign investment screening landscape across all Member States. It will be essential for investors to seek regulatory advice early in the planning stages of a transaction involving one or more EU Member States in order to formulate a robust FDI regulatory strategy.
In brief 2024 brought many changes and developments to foreign investment law in Canada. The Canadian government introduced various reforms to foreign investment policy through amendments to the Investment Canada Act (the “Act”), reframing risk in certain sensitive industries which Canada views as important for safeguarding its national security and economic interests. Geopolitical and trade tensions have also increased Canada’s use of national security reviews over foreign investments from Chinese investors, particularly in Canadian critical mineral assets…
On July 8, 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Investment Security announced a proposed rule that would expand the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) over transactions by foreign persons involving real estate in the United States. While CFIUS has jurisdiction over all acquisitions by foreign persons of US businesses, CFIUS also has authority to review acquisition of real estate unconnected with a US business where that real estate is…
On 20 May 2024, the UK Government issued updated guidance on the use of powers under the National Security and Investment Act (“NSI Act”). As noted in our blog post dated 26 April 2024, this updated guidance forms part of the UK Government’s response to the call for evidence that it launched in December 2023 asking for stakeholder feedback on a number of areas of potential change to the NSI Act. The updates to the…
Introduction In April and May 2024, the scope of the ex-officio procedure was significantly expanded in updated guidelines published by the Belgian FDI authority, whereas the broad interpretation of ex-officio power by the Dutch FDI regulator was limited by a district court ruling. In the UK, the scope of ex-officio powers remains unchanged, but recently updated guidelines clarify in greater detail the cases where it may be applied. This highlights the divergence of approach of…
FDI enforcement in Europe continues to increase, with authorities focusing on acquisitions relating to strategic assets and infrastructure. Companies and advisors should take this increased scrutiny into account when drafting corporate documents, and ensure that they have a clear strategy in place to obtain FDI clearances in a timely manner. The two major FDI investigations in Europe in September both concerned share acquisitions of strategic assets. First, in the face of concerns raised by national…
On 13 July 2023, in Case C-106/22, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its decision in relation to a preliminary reference submitted by the Budapest High Court. In the context of companies that often have a cross-border ownership structure extending outside of the EU, the ECJ concluded that the fact that a parent company registered in a third country has a majority control over an EU-based investor does not mean that the EU FDI…