Experts Worry About Military Filter on FDI

International Trade attorney Turenna Ramírez Ortiz was interviewed by Reforma about proposed amendments to Mexico's Foreign Investment Law that would expand the government's review of acquisitions in industries considered important to the country's economy. The initiative would add representatives from Mexico's defense, navy and security ministries to the National Foreign Investment Commission and allow certain transactions to be evaluated for national security implications. Turenna discussed how the proposal's definition of a national security threat could create uncertainty for foreign direct investment (FDI) in areas such as energy, mining, infrastructure, transportation, data storage, semiconductors and aerospace technology.

"The mere fact of requiring foreign investments that exceed 49 percent of the capital stock of a Mexican company and the still-unknown fixed-asset threshold to seek prior authorization creates a technical hurdle that may not be well received," she said.

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