This summer, President Bush signed legislation reforming the interagency process for reviewing foreign acquisitions of U.S. corporate entities, about a year and a half after a public firestorm erupted over DP World’s proposed acquisition of P&O Ports.
The Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 makes several significant reforms, including widening the scope of the “Exon-Florio” review process to cover transactions involving critical infrastructure, but the final bill signed into law on July 27 keeps Exon-Florio’s basic structure in place, and in so doing strikes an appropriate balance between protecting national security and welcoming foreign direct investment in the United States.
