Multiple American media networks reported that US Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel filed lawsuits against Joe Biden’s government on Monday (January 6) for blocking a merger deal worth up to 14 billion US dollars.
The New York Times reported that the lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Washington. It accuses Biden and some officials in his administration of ‘corrupting the review process for political gain.’
It charged the steelmakers accused them of hurting the steelworkers and American steel industry over ‘national security pretenses,’ the report said. This is their last-ditch effort to salvage the attempted merger, which incoming US President Donald Trump opposes.
Just as the complaint was filed, Trump posted to Truth Social, “Why would they want to sell US Steel now when Tariffs make it a much more profitable and valuable company? Wouldn’t it be nice to have US Steel, once the greatest company in the World, lead the charge toward greatness again? It can all happen very quickly!
Biden blocked the deal last week on the grounds of national security. According to a report in The Washington Post, another lawsuit was filed where the firm sued another steelmaker, Cleveland-Cliffs, and its CEO, Lourenco Goncalves. That suit also named David McCall, the chief of the United Steelworkers Union, as a defendant. Nippon Steel had earlier said it is considering legal action against the US government after Biden blocked its acquisition proposal.
Earlier, CNN Business had quoted Nippon Steel president Tadashi Imai as saying, “We are considering this as an important option. I think we can take action, including announcing (a response), without taking too much time.”
On Friday, Biden blocked the $13.4 billion acquisition deal (January 3). Both companies assailed it as an overt use of executive authority in the closing days of the Biden administration, which will formally step out when Trump takes the oath of office on January 20.
