Global Trade Alert

The government of Australia removed parts of the mandatory screening for FDI projects in August 2009.
On 4 August 2009, Mr Wayne Swan, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, announced reforms to Australia's foreign investment screening framework.
The concrete legislative change is that private foreign investments in Australian businesses below AUD 219 million (previously AUD 100 million) will not be screened. He motivated this liberalising measure with the fact that the previous screening requirements 'impose unnecessary compliance costs on businesses'.
 
Recent FDI figures by sector and country have been used for the identification of the affected trading partners and sectors (see third source for more details).