LINES HAVE BEEN CROSSED
From the outset, Nippon Steel’s bid has been painted as sinister: In the early phases, US senators gasped that its allegiances “clearly lie with a foreign state”, then other objections followed.
With election day drawing closer, Donald Trump has pledged to block the deal immediately if he wins while Kamala Harris has said US Steel should remain “American owned and American operated”.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, which vets foreign buyers for national security risks, concluded that Nippon Steel did indeed pose such risks. Neither the state department nor Pentagon shared that view, but election politics, as some feel Nippon should have foreseen, follow a snarling rationale.
Throughout Nippon’s various efforts to overcome these obstacles, significant lines have been crossed on the US side – transgressions that cavalierly question Japan’s status as America’s closest ally in Asia, and among its best in the world.
This questioning of a Japanese company’s – and by association, Japan’s – trustworthiness as an owner of US assets are, at best, awkwardly timed. At worst, they are a gift to the very countries that the US and its allies see themselves as ranged against.
