By Alexandra Alper
(Reuters) – A powerful U.S. national security panel on Wednesday submitted a recommendation to President Donald Trump on Nippon Steel’s fraught $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel, a person familiar with the matter said, without providing further detail on its contents.
The submission complies with an executive order signed by Trump last month, which tasked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. with outlining whether any measures proposed by the companies assuage the national security risks previously identified by the committee.
Reuters could not learn the content of the committee’s recommendation.
Trump will now have 15 days to decide the fate of the transaction, although the timeline could slip.
The companies and the Treasury Department, which leads CFIUS, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Following a previous CFIUS-led review, former President Joe Biden blocked the deal in January on national security grounds.
The companies sued, arguing they did not receive a fair review process. The Biden White House rejected that view.
Reuters reported earlier this week that Nippon Steel has floated plans to invest $14 billion in U.S. Steel’s operations including up to $4 billion in a new steel mill if the Trump administration green lights its merger bid, in response to requests from the government for more investment.
The April directive asks for a statement describing the position of each agency that is a member of CFIUS as well as the reasons behind it.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; editing by Costas Pitas and Sonali Paul)
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