Italian lawmakers are upset with the French – this time, for trying to buy some butter (in the form of dairy giant Parmalat). The Italians’ response? A proposed review mechanism for foreign investment in strategic industries reminiscent of France’s “Danone Law”, adopted in 2006 after PepsiCo’s aborted attempt to buy the French yogurt maker.

The Italian-French food fight is emblematic of a global drive to screen foreign investment on purported national security concerns or national interests. Within the last few months, two European commissioners have proposed a European Union-level committee to vet foreign investment on strategic grounds; Brazil proposed a review for investment in the agricultural sector; and most prominently, China rolled out interim rules for a national security-based review of foreign mergers and acquisitions of Chinese enterprises.

These proposals follow the adoption or amendment, within the past four years, of national security or national interest-based foreign investment review laws in the US, Russia, Germany, Canada and Australia, among others. This is a potentially worrisome trend. Countries need to resist the temptation to deploy such tests in a way that burdens the flow of international investment.