Lori Wallach
Almost as soon as President Joe Biden announced he would block Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel, the caterwauling began. The U.S. Steel CEO and some economists complained that Biden’s decision was based on political loyalty to American workers and unions, not the country’s broader economic and security interests. In a joint statement, the two companies argued there was not “any credible evidence of a national security issue” with the merger.
The critics’ focus on politics reflects that they are flat wrong on the merits. If the merger went through, it could leave the U.S. without ready access to sufficient volumes of specific critical steel products and the ores to make them that are necessary for our national defense and domestic infrastructure.
