A National Security Study of the Shuanghui-Smithfield Case

Abstract

This article studies the Shuanghui – Smithfield Foods case from the perspective of national security review. The article firstly introduces the background of the case and the political and national security questions to the case. It then explains U.S. CFIUS review in detail. The third part of the paper analyzes that national security concerns of the deal are from the nature of meat industry, the business scale of the two parties, the nationality of the acquirer. The paper ends up with the effect of the deal to U.S. national security review mechanism, predicting that food security may become part of consideration of CFIUS review and the Department of Agriculture may take a more active part in the review.