The U.S. government has the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS), which monitors investments in the domestic economy by foreign investors, and has recently begun paying more attention to the likely ties of Japanese companies wishing to invest in a particular North American industry. American. China.
This was reported by the Nikkei Asian Review, adding that related business requests involving Japanese companies are now being considered for longer as US authorities want to exclude Chinese investors operating through Japan from access to the companies’ assets. national. Even Japanese companies that have been operating in the United States for a long time and have a certain reputation in this area do not escape this fate.
A report released by CFIUS at the end of July states that, in 2022, it was Japanese investors who submitted the most requests for transactions related to critical sectors of the American economy. The number of orders in this area reached 16 pieces, although overall, across all US industries, Japanese investors ranked only fourth after Singapore (46 orders), China (41 orders) and Canada (39 orders). . Last year, about a third of applications accompanied by statements of a short-term nature were subject to closer scrutiny by US regulators. As a result, 57% of requests were considered longer than the 45 days provided by law for the first approval phase.
US authorities may ask foreign investors for information about joint ventures with Chinese partners, assets in China, and joint research and development with Chinese experts. Within Japan, controls on foreign investment have also been tightened since 2019, as transactions involving the sale of more than 10% of a Japanese company’s shares to foreign investors previously required special approval, but this limit has now been lowered. to 1%. In the USA, unlike in Japan, the authorities have the power to review the results of transactions already carried out, if they have not previously been subject to their control. In the event that foreign investments are related to the US national security sphere, this period of “retroactivity” is significantly increased.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS