Contact Your Financial Adviser Money Making MC
10 October 2018
 |
| Treasury Department (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions) |
The Treasury Department issued new rules Wednesday on foreign
investments into American companies that will give the government more power to
block foreign transactions on national security grounds.
The rules, which represent the latest
escalation in an intensifying economic conflict between the United States and
China, will implement a program for tougher reviews of foreign acquisitions
that Congress approved this summer.
The regulations will require foreign
investors to alert a Treasury-led interagency committee to all deals that would
give the foreign investors access to critical technology covering 27
industries, including semiconductors, telecommunications and defense.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the
new interim rules will "address specific risks to U.S. critical
technology" while also giving officials critical information they can use
in developing the final rules.
The law Congress passed in August did not
single out China, but it was clear lawmakers and the Trump administration had
Beijing in mind. The administration has accused China of using predatory
tactics to steal American technology.
The administration has imposed penalty
tariffs on about $250 billion of Chinese imports, triggering retaliation by
China, as a trade war between the world's two biggest economies has widened.
As part of the trade battle, President Donald
Trump had initially ordered the Treasury Department to draft investment
restrictions aimed specifically at China. But in June, Trump decided to back
Congress' effort to tighten existing investment restrictions by increasing the
powers of the existing Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or
CFIUS.
This Treasury-led inter-agency panel was
given the power to review investments that grant foreigners access to a U.S.
company's high-tech secrets. Before the law was strengthened, the committee
could only review foreign investments that were big enough to give the foreign
group control of the U.S. company.
The new rules ,
published Wednesday in the Federal Register, will go into effect on Nov. 10 and
will implement a pilot program covering an initial 27 industries. Officials
will use the experience gained from these reviews to craft expanded regulations
which will fully implement the new law.
The legislation received strong bi-partisan
support in Congress, with lawmakers from both parties expressing concerns about
the need to prevent China from obtaining American technology by buying or
investing in U.S. companies.The Total
Investment & Insurance Solutions
No comments:
Post a Comment