Biden set to block Japan’s Nippon from taking over US Steel, reports say

New York CNN —

President Joe Biden plans to announce as soon as Friday that he is blocking a $14.3 billion of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, according to published reports in the Washington Post and New York Times, which cited administration officials.

The move would not be a surprise but could have implications for future foreign investment in American companies. Biden has been on record opposing the deal, which was announced a year ago. President-elect Donald Trump also said he opposes the deal and that he also would block it once he takes office.

The deal has been politically charged since it was announced in December of 2023, stirring bipartisan political opposition to foreign control of a once key component of US industrial might which has fallen on hard times. Blocking the deal could be politically popular domestically but could scare away foreign investment in other US companies. It could also starve US Steel of investment it says it needs.

Late last month, the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States, known colloquially as CFIUS, notified Biden that it had not reached a consensus about whether or not US Steel’s sale to Nippon would pose a national security risk, leaving the decision up to the president to determine whether or not to block the deal on national security grounds.

“It is important that we maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steel workers. I told our steel workers I have their backs, and I meant it,” Biden said in a statement in March, when he was still seeking re-election. “US Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”