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A US panel vetting Nippon Steel’s proposed takeover of US Steel has been unable to agree on whether President Joe Biden should support the $15bn deal, making it more likely that he will block it during his last weeks in office.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (Cfius) reported to the White House on Monday that the nine agencies on the panel had not reached consensus that the deal posed no security risks, according to Nippon Steel and a person familiar with the matter. Monday was the deadline for Cfius to make a decision.
The lack of agreement puts the decision on a combination — which was agreed more than a year ago — in the hands of Biden, who has already voiced opposition to the Japanese company’s takeover plan and is widely expected to block it.
Doing so would have been more difficult for the president to justify if Cfius had concluded that a takeover did not pose any national security concerns.
Under the rules, the president has 15 days to make a decision or extend the timeline, which could hand the responsibility to Donald Trump, who has also publicly opposed the bid.
The deal’s collapse could shake faith in the strength of the most important alliance between the US and an Asia-Pacific country, and risk revealing the shortcomings of a national security process that has become highly politicised, according to government officials on both sides.
The inter-agency investment screening body said allowing a Nippon Steel takeover of US Steel could result in lower domestic steel production, posing “a national security risk”, according to the person familiar with its conclusion.
Nippon Steel confirmed that Cfius had referred the decision to the US president after failing to reach consensus.
The company urged Biden to “reflect on the great lengths that we have gone to address any national security concerns”.
It added that it had made commitments to “grow US Steel, protect American jobs and strengthen the entire steel industry” and it was confident that the transaction should be accepted “if it is fairly evaluated on its merits”.
The Cfius committee was split on whether the remedies proposed by Nippon Steel to guarantee these outcomes, such as appointing US citizens to top management and board positions, would be enough, the person familiar with the outcome said.
A White House spokesperson said: “We received the Cfius evaluation and the president will review it.”
The US Treasury, which chairs the Cfius panel, referred questions to the White House.
The Financial Times previously reported that the main source of opposition to the deal in the Cfius panel came from Katherine Tai, the US trade representative, even though agencies on the panel had concluded that the acquisition of the iconic American steel producer posed no security risks.
Nippon Steel has left the door open for a legal battle with the US government should the deal get rejected.
Takahiro Mori, vice-president at Nippon Steel, had been on a last-minute charm offensive, flying between Washington and Pennsylvania in recent weeks to try to win over policymakers and steelworkers.
A key obstacle has been fierce opposition from United Steelworkers, a powerful trade union led by David McCall, who is close to Biden.
