A Nippon Steel Corp. executive is set to meet senior U.S. government officials on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to advance its plan to acquire United States Steel Corp., which Washington is aiming to block, sources familiar with the matter said.

Nippon Steel Vice President Takahiro Mori is expected to hold talks in Washington with members of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which investigates potential national security risks associated with inbound investment deals, the sources said.

The move comes as President Joe Biden's administration is reportedly in the final stage of blocking the $14.1 billion takeover of the Pittsburgh-based firm by Japan's largest steelmaker.

U.S. presidential nominees Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are also opposed to the proposed acquisition by Nippon Steel.

U.S. Steel, founded in 1901, and the United Steelworkers Union are both headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the key battleground states of the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The powerful labor union, which has endorsed Harris, is strongly opposed to the deal.

Nippon Steel attempted to withdraw its filing with CFIUS, intending to refile its application after the presidential race, the Financial Times reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

CFIUS has concluded that the acquisition deal poses security risks that cannot be mitigated by Nippon Steel, though the State Department and Defense Department do not agree with the conclusion, the paper reported earlier.

"Since the outset of the regulatory review process, we have been clear with the administration that we do not believe this transaction creates any national security concerns," the Japanese company said in a statement released on Sept. 5 following reports Biden would block the deal.

==Kyodo

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Biden's opposition to U.S. Steel takeover could test ties with key ally Japan


The collapse of the Nippon Steel bid to acquire the Pennsylvania-based firm would be an “epic own goal” that could inadvertently help China, one analyst told NBC News

U.S. Steel caught in middle of dispute over sale to Japanese company


Sept. 11, 202
By Arata Yamamoto and Jennifer Jett


TOKYO — U.S. opponents of a Japanese steelmaker’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel cite concerns about national security and a reluctance to relinquish a storied American company. In Japan, the business community sees election-year politics at play.

President Joe Biden is preparing to formally block the proposed takeover of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel, two people familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News last week, over what he says are national security concerns.


That could complicate efforts to strengthen ties with Japan, a key U.S. ally, in an effort to counter China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific and around the world. Washington has also been pushing Tokyo to align itself with U.S. export controls that limit China’s ability to produce advanced semiconductors.

The deal’s failure would be an “epic own goal” that could inadvertently help China — which accounts for more than half of the world’s steel production — maintain its dominance of the global market, said Jeff Kingston, a professor of history and Asian studies at Temple University Japan.

The opposition to the deal “also places Japan in the unenviable company of China in terms of Washington’s politicization of economic issues,” Kingston said in an email. “But Japan is used to the twists and turns of presidential campaigns and understands that the Democrats are keen to appeal to Rust Belt voters.”

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have joined Biden in opposing Nippon’s acquisition of U.S. Steel, which is based in the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania.

The United Steelworkers union, whose members are part of an important voting bloc in the state, vehemently opposes the deal, even as Nippon Steel vows it will keep U.S. Steel American-run and prioritize U.S. domestic production to meet demand in the U.S. market.

Other U.S. Steel employees have rallied in support of the deal, which was announced in December. The company itself says the bid’s collapse would make the American steel industry less competitive globally and could cost thousands of union jobs at blast furnace facilities that might otherwise have to shut down.

U.S. Steel workers rallying in support of Nippon Steel’s bid outside the company’s headquarters in Pittsburgh last week.Rebecca Droke / AFP - Getty Images

Executives say the deal’s failure would also raise “serious questions” about whether the company remains at its longtime headquarters in Pittsburgh.

In Japan, where the winner of the governing Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership race this month will become the next prime minister, Biden’s plans to block the acquisition have been portrayed in the media as “insupportable and an insult to a close ally,” Kingston said.

Shigeru Ishiba, a former defense minister who is a front-runner in the LDP leadership race, told Reuters last week that what the U.S. was saying about Nippon Steel was “very unsettling” and “could undermine the trust of its allies.”

Another candidate, Digital Minister Taro Kono, said that he “never imagined” the takeover would raise national security concerns and that he would raise the issue with the White House should he become prime minister.

Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, has said the countries’ relationship is “deeper, richer and stronger than any single commercial transaction.”

A failure to acquire U.S. Steel would be a harsh blow to expansion plans at Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steelmaker, which is focusing on investment in the U.S. and India after having withdrawn from a joint venture in China that lasted almost 50 years.

A spokesperson for Nippon declined to comment on reports that vice chair Takahiro Mori had flown to Washington for talks with senior U.S. officials on Wednesday.

The Japan Business Federation, the country’s largest business group, said companies were watching the U.S. review process with keen interest, especially those thinking about investing in the U.S.

“I strongly hope that this issue is not influenced by the U.S. presidential election and that it’s handled based on a fair and just due process,” the group’s chairman, Masakazu Tokura, told reporters in Tokyo on Monday.

The Japanese government’s top spokesperson declined last week to comment on reports that Biden would block the deal, “as it concerns the management of an individual company.”

But the spokesperson, Yoshimasa Hayashi, added that expanding mutual investment between the U.S. and Japan and cooperating on economic security issues “are indispensable for both sides.”

U.S. and international business groups have also expressed concern about what they say is the politicization of the Nippon bid and its potential impact on the U.S. economy and workers. In a letter Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the Global Business Alliance, an international trade association based in Washington, said foreign governments might feel emboldened to take reciprocal action against U.S. companies seeking to invest abroad.

“America’s investment climate will be severely tarnished if such political interference prevails,” the group said in the letter, which was also signed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Japan Business Federation.

Long Le, an associate teaching professor at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, said Biden’s opposition to the deal indicated an important shift in U.S. politics when it comes to international trade, foreign direct investment and the extent to which the U.S. government is involved in industry.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a U.S. Treasury arm chaired by Yellen that reviews the national security implications of foreign purchases of U.S. businesses, has never blocked a Japanese acquisition, Le said.

Biden is “still defining what is national security,” he said in a phone interview. “And through this particular case, he is defining clearer than ever before that no foreign acquisition can be bought from a sector that’s considered critical, even if it’s from a country that is an ally of the United States.”

Kingston said the hope in Japan was that this was not the last word on the deal.

“Maybe Japan Inc. is hoping that once the dust clears after the election, sense will prevail,” he said.

Arata Yamamoto reported from Tokyo and Jennifer Jett from Hong Kong.