The US Steel and Nippon Steel groups threatened legal action after US President Joe Biden announced on Friday that he was blocking the planned takeover of the big American steel name by the Japanese giant.
This merger, which has agitated the two allied countries for a year, “would place one of the largest American steel producers under foreign control and pose risks to our national security and our essential supply chains”, explained the president American Joe Biden.
“A strong, domestically owned and operated steel industry is a key priority,” he insisted.
The United States is the world’s largest importer of steel, a sector overwhelmingly dominated by its great rival, China.
“Incomprehensible and regrettable”
Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoji Muto found it “incomprehensible and regrettable that the Biden government made a decision of this type citing concerns for national security”, according to a press release.
“This is not a decision against Japan, we have been in contact with them and shared our impressions,” assured White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre during a press briefing. “The President remains confident that American steel and American workers will continue to grow because of what he has already accomplished. The steel industry is stronger than it has been in a long time “, she added.
The subject is the subject of a rare consensus on a very tense and divided political scene, while Joe Biden must hand over the keys to the White House to President-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
Criticisms of both groups
The American steelworkers’ union USW said it was “grateful” for the outgoing president’s decision to “maintain a strong steel industry in the country.” In a statement, he also called on US Steel management to “make the decisions necessary to grow the company and keep it profitable.”
The two steel groups denounced this decision, seeing it as “a clear violation” of the law and threatening to “take all appropriate measures”. “The process was manipulated to push President Biden’s political agenda,” the two companies accused in a joint statement.
According to them, Joe Biden has presented “no credible evidence of a national security problem”. “Unfortunately, this will chill any company based in an allied country that plans to invest heavily in the United States.”
ats/iar
