Canada plans to toughen its foreign-investment law with a view to forcing greater transparency and accountability from investors in the wake of the political storm over BHP Billiton’s bid for PotashCorp.
Tony Clement, industry minister, told the Financial Times the review was not specifically linked to the BHP deal which his government all but scuppered last week by ruling that it did not offer a “net benefit” to Canada, as required under the Investment Canada Act.
“The prime minister and I both feel the process worked very well in the review of the BHP bid,” Mr Clement said, but added: “There are some points of view out there that are worth looking at.”