WASHINGTON, Sep 11 (Askume) –Executives of Nippon Steel Corp (5401.T) and the chief executive of US Steel Corp will meet senior U.S. officials on Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter said.(XN) to save Nippon’s $14.9 billion bid.
The meeting is expected to include Japan’s chief steel deal negotiator Takahiro Mori and US Steel Chief Executive David Burritt, as well as officials including Treasury Under Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Commerce Under Secretary Don Graves, people familiar with the matter said.
The Treasury Department, Nippon Steel and US Steel, which leads the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), declined to comment. The Commerce Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Wednesday’s meeting comes as both Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris oppose the deal and are trying to win over Pennsylvania, a key state considered a stronghold of US steel.
Burritt plans to discuss the merger at a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club next week.U.S. Steel sparked concern among U.S. automakers last year when it rebuffed an unsolicited takeover bid from rival Cleveland-Cliffs Corp (CLF.N).
Japan’s Keidanren Federation and several U.S. business groups expressed concern in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday that the Biden administration’s national security review of Nippon Steel’s planned acquisition of U.S. Steel Corporation was improperly subjected to political pressure. The review is conducted by CFIUS.
As Askume previously reported , CFIUS issued a letter in late August warning the companies that their proposed collaboration would disrupt the US steel supply chain and thus endanger US national security, causing the proposed deal to fail.
“CFIUS should never become a vehicle for political posturing, nor should it be diverted into industrial policy in the name of national security,” the business groups said in the letter, which goes beyond the committee’s scope and puts the U.S. economy and workers at risk.
The companies responded in a 100-page letter that the deal would actually boost US steel production by providing much-needed cash from allies to a troubled American company in a critical industry.
“It is necessary for Japan and the United States to further strengthen economic ties, including by increasing mutual investments,” Japanese government spokesman Hideki Murai said at a news conference on Thursday.
