In Hashimoto, “the rule of law was ignored”
Nippon Steel intends to assert its rights and move forward with legal action following US President Joe Biden’s decision to block his more than $14 billion takeover of US Steel.
The CEO of the Japanese company, Eiji Hashimoto, said this during a press conference in Tokyo, stating that he believes that the choice was politically motivated, and confirming that Nippon Steel will try to annul it in court.
“The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review of the agreement was not conducted properly due to President Biden’s illegal intervention,” Hashimoto said, and “we cannot accept it.” The remarks come in the wake of the filing of a lawsuit in the United States to overturn Biden’s order. The president, we read in the motivation, would have “ignored the rule of law to obtain the favor of the United Steelworkers union, which is one of the main supporters of the Democratic Party, opposed to the takeover by the Japanese company”. Hashimoto reiterated that the lawsuit will demonstrate that Biden’s decision was not made for national security reasons, despite insistence to the contrary. “We have a chance to win,” he said, adding that Nippon Steel does not intend to consider other alternatives to the current plan to acquire US Steel.
