The United States has implemented an increasingly rigorous national security investment review regime over the last three decades, as foreign direct investment in the U.S. has grown and the nation's national security profile has evolved. Today, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) administers this regime. In recent years, similar legal regimes have arisen or been strengthened in many countries, including Germany, Canada, Australia, and France.
CFIUS is empowered to review certain transactions involving a “foreign person” and a U.S. business in order to evaluate a transaction’s impact on U.S. national security. CFIUS has the authority to impose conditions to mitigate national security risks on covered transactions, and may even recommend that the President block (or, in the case of completed transactions, unwind) such transactions. Some transactions also implicate complex policy and political factors, which must be carefully addressed in the context of pursuing CFIUS clearance.
