By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The pinnacle of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday urged the White Home to scrutinize the connection between Nippon Metal and the Chinese language metal trade, citing nationwide safety issues amid bipartisan opposition in Congress to the Japanese firm’s $14.9 billion deal to amass U.S. Metal Corp.
“As you study this deal, I urge you to totally examine the allegations raised on this report and study Nippon’s ties to the Chinese language authorities and the hazard this merger poses to American nationwide and financial safety,” Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio who chairs the Senate panel, mentioned in a letter to Biden.
Nippon Metal and the White Home didn’t instantly remark.
Brown, who’s operating for an additional time period within the Nov. 5 elections, mentioned that Nippon Metal in 1978 reached a deal to construct China’s “first totally fashionable metal complicated,” and he cited a report that Nippon operates 9 services in China.
“Nippon’s connection to the Chinese language metal ecosystem and industrial coverage agenda has regarding implications concerning ties to China’s military-civil fusion technique and quest for world financial energy,” Brown mentioned within the letter.
The White Home sees metal as essential to nationwide safety, and Biden mentioned final month that U.S. Metal ought to stay domestically owned. His opponent within the Nov. 5 presidential election, former President Donald Trump, has promised to dam the deal if he wins.
The deal is opposed by quite a few lawmakers within the Midwest, together with Brown, in addition to by the United Steelworkers union.
Nippon Metal says it may assist U.S. Metal develop.
“What U.S. politicians are involved about is jobs and whether or not U.S. Metal can develop as an iconic U.S. firm within the U.S.,” Nippon Metal President Tadashi Imai instructed reporters final week.