Vice President Harris on Monday said she opposes the merger between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel, joining President Biden and her electoral rival, former President Trump.
Harris made her first comments about the steel merger at a Labor Day rally in Pittsburgh on Monday with Biden in attendance.
“The president mentioned it: U.S. Steel is a historic American company, and it is vital for our nation to remain strong American steel companies,” Harris said after her introduction by Biden. “And I couldn’t agree more with President Biden: U.S. Steel should remain American-owned and American-operated.”
Harris’ opposition to the deal aligns her with the Republican presidential nominee, Trump, who said in February that he would block the proposed merger if he wins the election. The Democrat and Republican nominees staking out the same position on the merger underscores the importance of Pennsylvania as a swing state and its voters in the steel industry to the presidential race.
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The proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel has drawn criticism from the United Steelworkers union, which argues that Nippon Steel hasn’t made enough of a commitment to keeping open mills where its members are employed.
Nippon Steel has said it would uphold the union’s current contract and wouldn’t pursue layoffs or facility closures as a result of the transaction, and last week it nearly doubled its commitment to invest in revitalizing some aging U.S. Steel plants, upping the pledge to $2.7 billion in the coming years.
It has also said it would preserve the U.S. Steel name, brand and headquarters if the deal moves forward.
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A spokesperson for U.S. Steel told FOX Business that it will be a “much stronger company as a result of the transaction with Nippon Steel, and the American steel industry will be more globally competitive.”
“Nippon Steel has committed to investing nearly $3 billion in our union-represented facilities. These investments would be truly transformative, securing jobs for generations of steelmakers in Western Pennsylvania and represent an influx of capital that U.S. Steel simply would not pursue absent the transaction with Nippon,” U.S. Steel said in a statement.
“In Pennsylvania alone, U.S. Steel employs nearly 4,000 hard working men and women – and this is the best deal for them and the communities where they live,” the company added. “Nippon Steel is a long-standing operator and investor in steel facilities in the U.S., including Pennsylvania, and we look forward to bringing significant benefits of this deal to our employees and other stakeholders.”
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Last year, the United Steelworkers union supported a $7.3 billion bid by Cleveland Cliffs to buy U.S. Steel, but the company rejected the move over concerns about market concentration in terms of steel supplied to the auto industry as well as control over domestic supplies of iron ore.
This spring, U.S. Steel shareholders voted to approve the deal with Nippon Steel with 98% of the voted shares coming out in support of the deal, which made up about 71% of the company’s outstanding stock.
The Biden-Harris administration is conducting two reviews of the proposed deal. The Justice Department is investigating the antitrust implications of the merger, while the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) is looking into national security considerations.
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CFIUS could recommend that the president block the deal over security concerns, though it’s unclear at this time whether it would do so given that the U.S. and Japan are allies who are parties to a longstanding mutual defense treaty. Though Nippon Steel is based in Japan, it’s a private company and not a state-owned enterprise.
Nippon Steel recently pushed back the expected closing date for the deal from September to December due to the ongoing reviews of the merger.
