Biden Aide Downplays Nippon Steel Extension in Deal Review

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan downplayed any suggestion that the US granting Nippon Steel Corp. an extension in a security review of its $14.1 billion deal for United States Steel Corp. indicated President Joe Biden was warming to the politically contentious takeover.

“Nobody should overread what happened last week as a substantive expression of views, rather as a matter of process to ensure that the transaction gets the full review that’s appropriate in a case like this,” Sullivan told reporters on the sideline of the Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday.

Sullivan’s comments come after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — the secretive review panel led by Biden’s Treasury secretary, which is reviewing the transaction — granted Nippon Steel an extension that likely pushes a decision on the deal past the US presidential election in November. 

Biden has said US Steel should remain domestically owned and operated and is said to be preparing to kill the deal. The deadline for a review of the transaction was Sept. 23 before the extension, which effectively starts a new 90-day clock.

“The president will obviously allow that process to run its course because that’s what required from the law, and then we will see what happens,” Sullivan told reporters.

The deal for the iconic American firm headquartered in Pennsylvania — a critical swing state likely to determine the contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris — has sparked an election-year firestorm in a cycle dominated by voter concern about jobs and wages. Harris has echoed Biden’s position, while Trump has pledged outright to block the purchase.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is one of the world leaders Biden is hosting at the Quad summit. The steel deal did not come up during a bilateral meeting between the two leaders on Saturday, according to an official familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details about the discussion.

The deal is opposed by the United Steel workers union, which is pushing for stronger job guarantees by Nippon Steel’s parent company, not its US subsidiary. The union and US Steel are both based in Pittsburgh.

Proponents of the deal say it would create a steel company with the scale to compete with China and have bristled at the involvement of Cfius, whose reviews are typically directed at US adversaries, not allied nations such as Japan. 

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