US Steel and Japanese company sue after foreign acquisition blocked

The United States Steel Corporation filed two joint lawsuits with Nippon Steel after President Joe Biden blocked the Japanese company from acquiring the iconic American company.

The lawsuits target the Biden administration for blocking the acquisition, as well as the United Steelworkers (USW) and Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs, which US Steel and Nippon Steel allege illegally coordinated the acquisition. acquisition.

US Steel and Nippon Steel say Biden stopped the acquisition to curry favor with the United Steelworkers Union, even though he is outgoing president. As a result, the lawsuits allege, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) failed to conduct a proper review process.

The second suit claims that Cleveland-Cliffs and the USW illegally colluded to block the acquisition.

Like Biden, President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to block the acquisition because he views it as a threat to national security.

As Breitbart News reported in 2023, executives at US Steel and Nippon Steel were seeking a nearly $15 billion deal that would have seen the iconic American steel giant – vital to the US armed forces during the Second World War Against Japan – sold to Japanese company.

Nippon Steel hired former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to pressure Trump and the Biden administration to change their position on the acquisition. But lobbying efforts failed.

US Steel was founded in 1901 by Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan and Charles Schwab and played a vital role in the nation’s “arsenal of democracy” during World War II.

Among the many American companies that helped the Allies defeat the Axis powers, including Imperial Japan, US Steel made the United States the world’s largest steel producer during the war, with Pennsylvania becoming the capital national steel company.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.