UK, New Zealand Meet CFIUS Excepted Foreign State Criteria, Treasury Says

The U.K. and New Zealand have met certain investment screening requirements and will remain eligible for the Treasury Department’s excepted foreign state and excepted real estate foreign state provisions, the agency said last week. The determination adds both countries to the list of foreign nations that benefit from certain exemptions under the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. review process.

Treasury said both the U.K. and New Zealand have “established and are effectively utilizing a robust process to analyze foreign investments for national security risks” and are cooperating with the U.S. on investment security issues. Treasury also said both countries “have made significant progress toward” their screening process for foreign real-estate transactions that could impact national security. The determinations took effect Feb. 10.

Under the excepted foreign state provision, companies from both countries may benefit from exemptions to the CFIUS process, sometimes allowing businesses to skip CFIUS clearance altogether (see 2109030039). The decision comes about one year after Treasury extended the deadline by which the U.K. had to prove it had a robust foreign investment screening process to remain an excepted foreign state (see 2201050039), and about one year after Treasury initially added New Zealand to the list (see 2201110026). CFIUS has one year after a country is added to the list to determine whether it should remain an excepted foreign state.