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Switzerland edges closer to stricter screening of foreign investments

Switzerland edges closer to stricter screening of foreign investments
National Council wants to examine foreign investments more closely in future Keystone-SDA

Foreign investors are set to face greater scrutiny in Switzerland as one parliamentary chamber passed the so-called Lex China bill on screening takeovers by overseas buyers.

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On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved the bill with 143 votes in favor, 46 against and two abstentions. The controversial issue is how far the new provisions in the Investment Control Act should go.

+ Why Chinese companies are attracted to Switzerland

Lawmakers adopted Lex China following the advice of its Economic Affairs Committee. Parliament had initiated the bill with the referral of a motion by Centre Party Senator Beat Rieder.

Commission spokesperson Jacqueline Badran noted on behalf of the majority that 80 to 90% of OECD countries have been implementing investment controls for some time. Switzerland, with the highest direct investment per capita, must now follow suit.

+ Why the Sino-Swiss FTA is deemed only partially successful

Fundamental concerns were expressed by the Radical Party, part of the Swiss People’s Party parliamentary group and the Federal Council.

The opponents doubted the benefits of an investment screening law. On the contrary, the instrument would endanger prosperity and increase bureaucracy.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

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