Top US legislators on Thursday called for a national security assessment of a Chinese state company’s planned takeover of Swiss agribusiness Syngenta AG, pointing to its sizable US operations.
Senators Chuck Grassley, Sherrod Brown and Joni Ernst, all members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, called for a proactive review of the US$43 billion deal by the powerful Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) with participation by officials from the US Department of Agriculture and the US Food and Drug Administration.
The review should assess “any potential ramifications the purchase may have for American national security, with a specific focus on the potential effects on food security and the safety of our food system,” the senators said in a letter to the US Treasury Department, which chairs CFIUS.
“Shifts in company governance; operational strategy; or financial health — particularly in light of the magnitude of this leveraged transaction — could have consequences for food security, food safety, biosecurity and the highly competitive US farm sector as a whole,” they said.
Their letter focused on last month’s offer by state-owned China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina, 中國化工) to buy the Swiss company, a leading player in farm science and technology, with market-leading seeds and crop protection products.
The senators also suggested a growing general wariness of Chinese moves to buy US companies.
In a separate letter to the US Treasury on Wednesday, Brown said Chinese investment deals are behind a sharp overall climb in foreign takeovers of US companies.
He referred to national security concerns not only about the Syngenta deal, but appliance giant Haier Group’s (海爾) takeover of General Electric Co’s appliance division, Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group’s (重慶財信) bid for the Chicago Stock Exchange and others in the technology sector.
In their letter, the three senators also pointed to the 2013 takeover of Smithfield Foods Inc, the world’s largest pork processor, by China’s Shuanghui International (雙匯國際) as an additional reason why foreign investment in US agriculture needs “careful review.”
The risk rises when “an acquired US agricultural asset becomes in some part governed by a foreign government with clear strategic interests,” they said, adding that “unpredictable behavior” from foreign owners “is a great challenge for the United States.”
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose up to 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan’s semiconductor exports to the US to encourage chip manufacturers to move their production facilities to the US, but experts are questioning his strategy, warning it could harm industries on both sides. “I’m very confused and surprised that the Trump administration would try and do this,” Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst and founder of TECHnalysis Research in California, said in an interview with the Central News Agency on Wednesday. “It seems to reflect the fact that they don’t understand how the semiconductor industry really works,” O’Donnell said. Economic sanctions would
‘NO DISRUPTION’: A US trade association said that it was ready to work with the US administration to streamline the program’s requirements and achieve shared goals The White House is seeking to renegotiate US CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements, two sources familiar with the matter told reporters. The people, along with a third source, said that the new US administration is reviewing the projects awarded under the 2022 law, meant to boost US domestic semiconductor output with US$39 billion in subsidies. Washington plans to renegotiate some of the deals after assessing and changing current requirements, the sources said. The extent of the possible changes and how they would affect agreements already finalized was not immediately clear. It was not known