BISMARCK – A bill to prohibit North Dakota land ownership by foreign adversaries such as FuFeng near Grand Forks, was amended on the State Senate floor Wednesday.
SB2371, if passed, would ban businesses headquartered in federally recognized adversary countries from acquiring land in North Dakota. The committee and Senate as a whole added to the bill that the ban does not apply to duly registered businesses that have been in good standing with the Secretary of State for at least seven years. The amendments also included exceptions for adversaries approved by the committee for foreign direct investment and those that maintain an active national security agreement with the federal government.
“There was a business on the eastern side of our state, it was an American business started by American people,” said Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Dis. 19, Edinburg. “Back in the 2008 financial crash, it sold it to a Chinese entity, which is one of the nations that are listed on our adversary list for the federal government. In order to certainly not punish them or anyone else like that, we made these amendments set before you today.”
Myrdal explained the business she referred to is satisfied with the amendments. The U.S. Air Force has spoken out against FuFeng, a Chinese-owned corn plant, owning land in North Dakota. With the amendments to SB2371 passing the floor, the bill is scheduled to be considered for final passage Thursday.
