{"id":7319,"date":"2025-01-06T22:01:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T22:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/06\/biden-killed-us-steel-deal-even-though-some-us-officials-rejected-national-security-concerns\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T22:01:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T22:01:05","slug":"biden-killed-us-steel-deal-even-though-some-us-officials-rejected-national-security-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/06\/biden-killed-us-steel-deal-even-though-some-us-officials-rejected-national-security-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden killed US Steel deal even though some US officials rejected national security concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            The controversial decision to block the US Steel deal has won praise from union officials but faced fierce criticism inside and outside the administration.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            US Steel and Nippon Steel alleged in a Monday lawsuit that the process was driven by politics, not national security concerns.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Even though the US Steel takeover offer was from a company based in Japan \u2013 a major US ally \u2013 like all foreign acquisitions, it faced an intense review from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful but secretive interagency panel.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            However, CFIUS failed to reach a decision about whether the deal posed a national security risk, leaving the decision to the president.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Multiple prominent CFIUS members believed that any national security risk could be mitigated and that there were insufficient grounds to block the deal, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the US official said.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            The presence of those officials in the camp against blocking the deal is notable because Yellen chairs CFIUS and Austin would have insight into whether the US defense industrial base would be threatened by this proposed foreign takeover.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Biden specifically cited national security and the importance of a strong domestic steel industry in his statement explaining the decision on Friday.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            \u201cThis acquisition would place one of America\u2019s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains,\u201d Biden said.    <\/p>\n<div class=\"gallery-inline gallery--hidden\">\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__main\">\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__container\">\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__slides\">                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              <\/div>\n<p>        <button class=\"gallery-inline__prev-overlay\"><\/button>        <button class=\"gallery-inline__next-overlay\"><\/button>      <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5 class=\"gallery-inline__headline\">In pictures: The history of US Steel<\/h5>\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__counter\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-inline__controls\">        <button class=\"gallery-inline__prev\">          Prev                  <\/button>        <button class=\"gallery-inline__next\">          Next                  <\/button>      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal previously reported that Biden rejected appeals of several top advisers in deciding to tank the deal.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            After all, this foreign takeover was not from a rival nation such as China or Russia, it was from longtime US ally Japan.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            \u201cNever before has a President prohibited an acquisition by a company based in Japan, one of our closest allies,\u201d US Steel and Nippon Steel argued in the lawsuit.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Jason Furman, a top economic official during the Obama administration, blasted the decision to use national security to kill the deal.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            \u201cPresident Biden claiming Japan\u2019s investment in an American steel company is a threat to national security is a pathetic and craven cave to special interests that will make America less prosperous and safe,\u201d Furman, who is now a professor at Harvard University and a senior adviser at an Asia-focused consulting firm, wrote in an X post on Friday. \u201cI\u2019m sorry to see him betraying our allies while abusing the law.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            The White House defended the decision in a statement on Monday in response to the lawsuit filed by US Steel and Nippon Steel.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            \u201cA committee of national security and trade experts determined this acquisition would create risk for American national security,\u201d White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said in a statement. \u201cPresident Biden will never hesitate to protect the security of this nation, its infrastructure, and the resilience of its supply chains.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            \u201cThe presence and sufficiency of national security risk is in the eye of the beholder\u2014and under CFIUS the only eye that matters is the President\u2019s,\u201d he said.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Leiter does not believe the US Steel deal will ultimately hurt foreign investment into the United States, the world\u2019s largest economy.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            \u201cFor those of us who handle billions of dollars of transactions a year,\u201d he said, \u201cwe know that this was an outlier. This case will neither have significant precedential value, nor will it so poison the CFIUS well.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Opposition to the US Steel takeover was bipartisan, including multiple Rust Belt lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Both Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump opposed the deal during the presidential campaign, as did Vice President-elect JD Vance.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            Union officials praised Biden\u2019s decision to block the merger.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\">            \u201cWe have no doubt that it\u2019s the right move for our members and our national security,\u201d United Steelworkers International President David McCall said in a statement.    <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The controversial decision to block the US Steel deal has won praise from union officials but faced fierce criticism inside and outside the administration. US Steel and Nippon Steel alleged in a Monday lawsuit that the process was driven by politics, not national security concerns. Even though the US Steel takeover offer was from a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}