Biden believes U.S. Steel sale to Japanese company warrants 'serious scrutiny,' White House says
The White House says President Joe Biden believes “serious scrutiny” is warranted for the planned acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden believes “serious scrutiny” is warranted for the planned acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, the White House said Thursday after days of silence on a transaction that has drawn alarm from the steelworkers union.
Lael Brainard, the director of the National Economic Council, indicated the deal would be reviewed by the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which includes economic and national security agency representatives to investigate national security risks from foreign investments in American firms.
She said in a statement that Biden “believes the purchase of this iconic American-owned company by a foreign entity—even one from a close ally—appears to deserve serious scrutiny in terms of its potential impact on national security and supply chain reliability.”
“This looks like the type of transaction that the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment Congress empowered and the Biden administration strengthened is set up to carefully investigate,” she said. “This administration will be ready to look carefully at the findings of any such investigation and to act if appropriate.”
Under the terms of the approximately $14.1 billion all-cash deal announced Monday, U.S. Steel will keep its name and its headquarters in Pittsburgh, where it was founded in 1901 by J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. It will become a subsidiary of Nippon. The combined company will be among the top three steel-producing companies in the world, according to 2022 figures from the World Steel Association.
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