CFIUS Should Look Into Ford, Chinese Company Licensing Agreement, Senator Says

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. should look to review a licensing agreement between Ford and a Chinese battery manufacturer, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a recent letter. Rubio said the agreement would allow Ford to establish a Michigan factory that would license its technology from China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), which the senator said is the world's largest electric vehicle battery producer and has ties to the Chinese government.

The deal would “reportedly leave ownership of the plant and land on which it is constructed in Ford’s hands, while CATL will own and supply critical technology involved, including lithium iron phosphate cathodes, via a licensing agreement,” Rubio said in a Feb. 13 letter to the Treasury Department and other agencies. He said CFIUS should “conduct a review of Ford’s and CATL’s licensing deal and ownership structure of the” Michigan plant and asked the committee to say whether CATL “acquired any assets through a transaction that is reviewable under the CFIUS.”

Treasury didn’t comment.