Treasury has proposed rules that would modify provisions in the regulations of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, that implement the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018, or FIRRMA. The proposed rule would modify the mandatory declaration provision for certain foreign investment transactions involving a U.S. business that produces, designs, tests, manufactures, fabricates, or develops one or more critical technologies. It also makes clarifying amendments to the definition for the term “substantial interest.”

CFIUS previously established mandatory declarations for certain non-controlling investments in, and certain transactions that could result in control by a foreign person of, U.S. businesses that produce, design, test, manufacture, fabricate, or develop one or more critical technologies in connection with any of 27 industries identified by reference to the North American Industry Classification System, or NAICS.

The proposed rule revises the declaration requirement for certain critical technology transactions so that it is based on whether certain U.S. government authorizations would be required to export, re-export, transfer (in country), or retransfer the critical technology or technologies produced, designed, tested, manufactured, fabricated, or developed by the U.S. business to certain transaction parties and foreign persons in the ownership chain.

The proposed rule introduces the term and a definition of “U.S. regulatory authorization” to specify the types of regulatory licenses or authorizations that are required under the four main U.S. export control regimes, which if applicable in the context of a particular transaction described under the proposed rule, would trigger a mandatory declaration.

The proposed rule does not modify the definition of “critical technologies,” which is defined by FIRRMA. The proposed rule instead prescribes the types of transactions subject to mandatory declarations based on whether certain types of regulatory licenses or authorizations would be required for export and related activities involving the specific critical technology of the U.S. business.

The proposed rule also makes clarifying amendments to paragraphs (b) and (c) of the definition of substantial interest at § 800.244 of the Part 800 Rule, which establishes how to determine the percentage interest held indirectly by one entity in another for purposes of that term. In particular, the proposed rule clarifies that paragraph (b) applies only where a general partner, managing member, or equivalent primarily directs, controls, or coordinates the activities of the entity. It also removes the word “voting” before “interest” wherever it appears in paragraph (c) so that the calculation rule clearly applies to the calculation of “voting interests” as described in paragraph (a) and “interests” as described in paragraph (b) of that section.