Laura Black Quoted by Foreign Investment Watch on CFIUS Annual Report Findings

For its article “CFIUS reviewing fewer deals, taking longer, imposing more mitigation,” Foreign Investment Watch quoted Akin international trade senior counsel Laura Black. The article discusses the 2022 Annual Report to Congress recently published by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and its findings.

Among the findings were that the number of non-notified transactions reviewed by CFIUS were down from the previous year. Laura, who previously served as Director of Policy and International Relations, CFIUS, Office of Investment Security, said that business can derive some comfort that the odds have decreased of older transactions being called in. However, she noted, “This frees up resources to identify recent transactions that have not been voluntarily filed.”

On the decrease in the number of declarations on which CFIUS concluded all action, she said, “Although the exact figures in each of these categories will vary based on the particular transactions in a specific year, together they indicate that CFIUS is increasing its scrutiny, taking more time to finish its review and taking action more frequently. Parties will need to factor this into their planning.”