Two US steel-state Democrats in tough re-election fights are urging US President Joe Biden to do more to stop the proposed acquisition of United States Steel Corp by Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp.
“We’re pushing the White House on national security grounds and on trade enforcement,” US Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio told Bloomberg Television. “And fundamentally what this means for American workers and American jobs.”
United States Steel shareholders on Friday voted in favor of the US$14.1 billion takeover offer by Nippon Steel, even though Biden has publicly opposed the takeover and said the company should be US-owned.
Photo: AP
The Biden administration is putting the deal through a secretive national security review process, one that is typically reserved for businesses involving adversarial nations rather than allies like Japan. The decision by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US could be contested in court.
The US Department of Justice also opened an extended antitrust investigation into the takeover, creating additional hurdles to closing the deal. As a result, the companies are considering delaying the expected deal timeline.
Brown’s Senate race is considered one of the most competitive contests this November, and appealing to industrial workers is key to his re-election hopes. US Steel went against the request of the steelworkers union, which would have preferred the Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs Inc mining company make the acquisition.
Democratic US Senator Bob Casey, facing a competitive re-election in next-door Pennsylvania, where US Steel is headquartered in Pittsburgh, also is championing the cause.
“My principal concern is those steelworker jobs and this deal gives me great concern about the threat to those jobs,” Casey told Bloomberg Television.
Casey said he is inquiring with the White House about how conflict over the acquisition was handled in Biden’s discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his state visit last week.
When asked about the takeover at a joint news conference with Kishida, Biden reiterated his promise to back the United Steelworkers Union in its opposition to the deal.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also has said he would try to block the deal if elected.
Nippon Steel in December last year agreed to buy US Steel at a significant premium, saying the deal would make the US steel industry more competitive.
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