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The UK investments will be exempt from screening in the US.

The US will allow the UK to keep its exemp­tion from for­eign invest­ment screen­ings for cer­tain real estate and non-

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con­trolling deals, after con­clud­ing that Bri­tain had set up a strong enough regime of its own. Yes­ter­day’s decision rep­res­ents a vote of con­fid­ence from Wash­ing­ton in Bri­tain’s new and tougher law on for­eign invest­ment, which was imple­men­ted last year and which has already res­ul­ted in the block­ing of sev­eral high-pro­file planned Chinese invest­ments. The move was made by the Com­mit­tee on For­eign Invest­ment in the US , an inter-agency body chaired by Treas­ury sec­ret­ary Janet Yel­len. The US tightened its for­eign invest­ment screen­ing regime through a 2018 law enacted by former pres­id­ent Don­ald Trump amid grow­ing con­cern that some Chinese invest­ments posed a threat to national secur­ity.

«Today’s actions reflect that our Five Eye allies have all stood up and imple­men­ted their own robust for­eign invest­ment screen­ing pro­grammes. We look for­ward to con­tinu­ing to co-ordin­ate with all of them on mat­ters relat­ing to invest­ment secur­ity,» he added. Bri­tain’s National Secur­ity and Invest­ment Act, which came into effect in Janu­ary 2022, gives the UK gov­ern­ment much greater powers to block over­seas takeovers that raise poten­tial secur­ity con­cerns.

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