A month after congressional hearings on deficiencies in the approval process for foreign investment in critical U.S. sectors, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States approved Dubai Ports World’s acquisition of a British company that operated a number of U.S. ports.
The specter of a foreign-controlled U.S. port galvanized Congress to amend the law that governs CFIUS, and the publicity heightened every deal lawyer’s sensitivity to U.S. foreign investment review. That law, the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007, amends §721 of the Defense Production Act, a section commonly known as Exon-Florio.
