Sen. Sherrod Brown Urges Biden to Examine Nippon Steel's Ties to China
Ohio lawmakers, including Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have voiced concerns about dependency on a foreign country for a critical material, even though Japan is an ally of the U.S.
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the Senate Banking Committee chair, wants President Joe Biden to examine Nippon Steel’s ties to China in a bid to thwart an announced merger between Japan’s largest steelmaker and U.S. Steel.
Brown sent a letter to the president urging an examination of “the danger this merger poses to American national and economic security.”
“We cannot allow our U.S. industrial base to be compromised through further entanglement with one of our biggest national security threats,” Brown wrote in the letter.
The letter cited a new report by consultancy firm Horizon Advisory that raises national security concerns about the proposed takeover. The report described Nippon Steel as “fundamentally intertwined with China’s steel industry” and said the company has ties to China’s military, as well as to China’s policy of forced labor for its Uighur population.
Nippon Steel said in a statement to Reuters that the report was “rife with inaccuracies and misrepresentations.”
Since the $14.9 billion deal was announced in December, bipartisan opposition has been growing in Congress.
Ohio lawmakers, including Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have voiced concerns about dependency on a foreign country for a critical material, even though Japan is an ally of the U.S.
The deal hit another roadblock this week when the United Steelworkers (USW) union, which represents U.S. Steel workers, came out against it.
“Our union sees through Nippon’s proposal and will not support the transaction in exchange for a pack of empty promises,” USW international president David McCall wrote in a statement.
President Joe Biden has also criticized the deal, saying in a March statement,
“It is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”
Reviving U.S. manufacturing has been a key priority for Biden and a pillar of his campaign platform.
Former President Donald Trump has also come out against the merger.
An interagency group known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) is in the initial stages of a national security review of the deal. The panel, led by the Treasury Department, has the power to block or amend the deal.
Courtesy: www.spectrumnews1.com