In any election campaign, there's one company that gets most of the attention. In 2024, that company is US Steel, a distant heir to the empire built by Carnegie and JP Morgan in Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century. Once struggling, the company is now the subject of a $14 billion (€12.9 billion) acquisition proposal from Nippon Steel, which plans to make significant investments in the United States.
But Donald Trump opposes the deal, sticking to his "America first" policy. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have taken a similar stance. "US Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company," said the US president on Labor Day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in early September. The Democratic presidential candidate followed up: "I couldn't agree more with President Biden – US Steel should remain American-owned, and American-operated. And I will always have the backs of America's steelworkers."
These statements contradict all the objectives stated by the Biden administration, which has pledged not to work against its allies or hinder investment and job creation in the US. But in the midst of an election campaign, the Biden-Harris duo needs the support of the unions, which are ardently opposed to the merger. "The steelworkers union is more concerned with getting visible victories and maintaining high benefits for however few workers remaining than they are about the viability of the company or the growth in employment," said Adam Posen, head of the Washington-based transatlantic think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics. Victory may well come at this price in Pennsylvania, the swing state most crucial for winning the election.
To be on the safe side, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which was due to examine the case, has decided to postpone its decision. Nick Klein, one of CFIUS's lawyers, told Reuters that the decision would be made after the November elections. Nonetheless, the Biden administration has sealed what Trump set out to do: make America look inward.
The strategic shift was articulated in what could be considered the most important speech of Biden's tenure – delivered by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, to the Brookings Institution on April 27, 2023. In presenting his "New Washington Consensus," Sullivan acknowledged the demise of the 1990s-era model based on free trade agreements and globalized supply chains.
You have 75.47% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.