Doctor's smock

© istock.com/alvarez

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has submitted the 15th revision of the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (AWV) for a hearing with relevant associations. The revision focusses on the health sector. In the future, critical acquisitions of German firms that develop or produce vaccines, medical personal protection equipment (PPE) and other medical products for the treatment of highly contagious diseases must be notified to the Economic Affairs Ministry in cases of acquisitions by third countries, i.e. non-EU states. In cases of acquisitions by third countries, i.e. non-EU states, the threshold for possible reviews is the acquisition of 10% of the shares of the company concerned.

Economic Affairs Minister Altmaier said: “We need to know in good time about critical corporate acquisitions in the health sector by third countries so that we can review them. We certainly want to keep Europe open for investment, but we also must be able to have a closer look at acquisitions, if necessary. This applies to vaccines, drugs and medical protection equipment. This is how we can prevent medical expertise and production capacities that are essential for the healthcare of our population from being taken abroad. The current coronavirus crisis shows that this is necessary.”

The Economic Affairs Ministry has submitted the draft revision to the Ministries concerned and launched the involvement of associations. After the completion of the involvement of the Ministries and associations concerned, the 15th revision of the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance will be submitted for approval to the Federal Cabinet.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy will shortly present further proposals to amend the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance. They are to complement the revision of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act, which was adopted by the Federal Cabinet on 8 April 2020 and is currently going through the parliamentary procedure.

The draft Ordinance can be found here (in German) (PDF, 73 KB).