Foreign Investment Watch: The UK and New Zealand to Remain Excepted Foreign States. Big Whoop?

The US Treasury Department announced that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) will keep the United Kingdom and New Zealand as “excepted foreign states,” stating that countries have their own “robust foreign investment screening programs.” Therefore, the Five Eyes countries–Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States–will continue to “benefit from exception of certain CFIUS reviews.” There are significant requirements that need to be met in order to become an excepted foreign state. “While other countries, like Germany, have begun to implement foreign investment review processes to assess national security risks, there may not be sufficient processes in place yet to facilitate the necessary coordination with the United States,” said O’Melveny counsel David Ribner.

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