President Joe Biden blocked Friday the proposed $14 billion sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan, invoking “critical” national security interests to uphold “resilient supply chains” into the future.
He had vocalized opposition to the sale for a long time. According to him, “it would put under foreign control one of the largest steel producers in America and bring risk to our national security and our critical supply chains.”
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“Of solemn responsibility for me as President is to ensure that, now and long into the future, America has a strong, domestically owned and operated steel industry that continues to power our national sources of strength at home and abroad; and it is a fulfillment of that responsibility to block foreign ownership of this vital American company,” the statement read.
“U.S. Steel will remain a proud American company – one that’s American-owned, American-operated, by American union steelworkers – the best in the world,” he added.
That is the course of the president’s decision after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) failed to reach a consensus last mid-December on whether the deal posed a national security risk, which thus required Biden’s action within the 15-day window.
President-elect Donald Trump has also spoken against this sale.
Neither US Steel nor the United Steelworkers labor union could immediately comment regarding Biden’s decision.”