Japan’s largest steelmaker said Tuesday that it would not give up trying to purchase U.S. Steel even after President Joe Biden blocked the $15 billion bid last week over national security concerns. The blocking of the proposed deal by Nippon Steel cast a shadow over a final visit to Japan by outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken, amid worries that it could sour U.S. relations with a key diplomatic and economic Asian ally — the two countries are each other's biggest foreign investors.
Eiji Hashimoto, chairman and chief executive of Nippon Steel, the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker, said there was “no reason or need to give up” on the bid. “This is not just the most important matter for our company’s business strategy,” he told reporters in Tokyo. “I am firmly convinced this is something extremely beneficial for both Japan and the United States.” On Monday, Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, which strongly supports the deal, sued the Biden administration and others over the decision, saying Biden ignored the rule of law to gain political favor with union members who opposed it. “Never before has a President prohibited an acquisition by a company based in Japan, one of our closest allies,” they said in the lawsuit. After meeting on Tuesday with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Blinken said the U.S.-Japan alliance was “stronger than it’s ever been before.” He did not answer a question from NBC News about the Nippon Steel bid. The decision was left up to the White House last month after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a government panel that reviews foreign investments for national security risks, failed to reach consensus. In announcing his decision to block it on Friday, Biden said it was important to keep U.S. Steel American-owned to avoid undermining critical supply chains and putting jobs at ris
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