Simone Del Rosario: Vice President Kamala Harris declared her position on the $15 billion deal between Japan’s Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel. She told a crowd of people in Pittsburgh Monday she’s against selling U.S. Steel to a foreign company. 

Kamala Harris: U.S. Steel is an historic American company, and it is vital for our nation to maintain strong American steel companies. And I couldn’t agree more with President Biden, U.S. steel should remain American-owned and American-operated. 

Simone Del Rosario: Her position is in line with President Biden’s and former President Trump’s. Trump has said multiple times this year on the campaign trail he’d block the sale if elected.

Donald Trump: I will stop Japan from buying United States Steel. We have a foreign country that wants to purchase one of our greatest. They shouldn’t be allowed to buy it. We have to make it work. Have to make it work. You don’t want to sell U.S. Steel.

Simone Del Rosario: U.S. Steel put itself up for sale in 2023 and Japan’s Nippon Steel came to the table with an offer of $14.9 billion, a 40% premium over the share price at the time. Both companies agreed to the sale in December and continue to hope it passes regulatory muster. 

Nippon says they believe a fair and objective regulatory review process will support the sale, while U.S. Steel says it remains committed to the deal despite disapproval from candidates, saying it’s the best deal for the company, employees and the communities where they do business. 

The United Steelworkers union, based in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, also opposes the deal, questioning Nippon’s commitments to U.S. employees and plants.

Presidents can block certain foreign acquisitions on national security grounds. The Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States is already analyzing the deal for national security implications, while Nippon has distanced itself from other projects to strengthen its case. 

Presidents have used this review to block eight foreign transactions in history. Seven of them stemmed from Chinese companies and one from a company in Singapore deemed to be too close to China and Huawei. 

As Trump points out, U.S. Steel is a historic U.S. company. 

Donald Trump: If you go back 70 years. Our greatest country, our greatest company by far, was United States Steel Corporation. That was the big deal. And now we have Japan buying it.

Simone Del Rosario: But analysts note it’s been a long time since U.S. Steel was on top. 

In a commentary published by the conservative Heritage Foundation, research fellow Joel Griffith wrote, “Although once a crown jewel of American industry, U.S. Steel in recent decades has shuttered factories, sold others, and exited segments of the industry…Detractors falsely claim the Nippon buyout threatens U.S. national security, manufacturing, and jobs. In reality, blocking the deal will harm American workers, shareholders, and other businesses.”

According to reporting by the New York Times, the real rift between the Nippon transaction and United Steelworkers is that Nippon did not consult union leaders during negotiations. Nippon reportedly believed doing so could risk its deal getting leaked to a competitor in the bidding process, Cleveland-Cliffs, which has close ties to the union. 

For SAN, I’m SDR.