Four members of the House Financial Services Committee asked the Treasury Department last week for an update on the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan-based Nippon Steel, saying they’re concerned the Biden administration’s review of the deal may have been improperly influenced by politics.
President Joe Biden is planning to block Japan-based Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel, a deal that has been under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., according to multiple reports. CFIUS appears to have concluded that national security concerns raised by the acquisition couldn’t be mitigated, the Washington Post reported Sept. 4. The White House has declined to comment but in a statement told the Post that CFIUS “had not yet transmitted its recommendation to the president,” the report said. Biden and multiple U.S. lawmakers have voiced opposition to the deal (see 2403150066 and 2405100026).
Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., introduced a bill last week that would permanently add the agriculture secretary to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to review agricultural transactions.
Nazak Nikakhtar, acting head of the Bureau of Industry and Security during the Trump administration, blamed the deep state for a lack of urgency in confronting China, during a podcast interview with China Talk. Nikakhtar did not use that term, but said that it was hard for Commerce Department career officials to shift their thinking from promoting exports of goods to restricting exports or investment. Nikakhtar was previously a civil servant herself, working on antidumping and countervailing duty cases and negotiations with China.
At least 22 states recently have approved legislation regulating foreign ownership of U.S. land, reflecting growing interest in addressing the potential national security and economic implications of such investments, the Congressional Research Service said in a new report this week.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Treasury Department should make sure its investment screening regulations don’t unfairly discriminate against foreigners and should do more to curb a rise in “xenophobic” U.S. state and federal land laws, nonprofits told the agency and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. They criticized several bills that could place new investment restrictions on people from “countries of concern,” including China and Iran, and said they’re concerned CFIUS may not have the resources to manage its expanding jurisdiction.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. has levied nearly $70 million in penalties so far this year, including a $60 million fine against T-Mobile after the telecommunications company violated its national security agreement. The announcement, the first time CFIUS has named a company it has penalized, comes after the committee last year issued a record-setting four penalties (see 2407230017) and in April proposed expanding its enforcement powers (see 2404110037), underscoring its recent focus on punishing violators and increasing penalties.
The chair and ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, along with a bipartisan group of 53 representatives, filed an amicus brief last week in the suit against the TikTok ban to support the constitutionality of the ban (see 2406070023) (TikTok v. Merrick Garland, D.C. Cir. # 24-1113).