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…
In brief The Government of Canada has published the 2025 financial thresholds for pre-closing, “net benefit” review and approval of foreign investment under the Investment Canada Act (“ICA”). The ICA financial thresholds are reviewed annually and have once again increased. Notably, the financial threshold for trade agreement investors that are not state-owned enterprises (“SOE”) has exceeded CAD 2 billion for the first time. Failure to notify and obtain approval for an investment may result in…
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…
In brief The Government of Canada recently passed Bill C-34, the National Security Review of Investment Modernization Act (“Bill C-34“), marking a turning point in the review of foreign investment in Canada. Bill C-34 enhances the Canadian government’s national security review powers under the Investment Canada Act (“ICA“) and introduces mandatory pre-closing filings for certain investments. The amendments are intended to address evolving threats arising from foreign investment and to ensure Canada’s economic security and prosperity. Bill…