Nippon Steel on Wednesday slammed the “inappropriate” influence of politics on its planned takeover of US Steel after a media report said President Joe Biden would block it.The deal worth $14.9 billion including debts is being reviewed by a body in Washington that assesses foreign takeovers of US firms.Bloomberg News, citing people close to the matter, said Biden planned to kill the sale on national security grounds when the review is finished later this month.”It is inappropriate that politics continue to outweigh true national security interests — especially with the indispensable alliance between the US and Japan as the important foundation,” a Nippon Steel statement said.”We have engaged in good faith with all parties to underscore how the transaction will bolster American economic and national security by countering the threats posed by China,” it added.”Nippon Steel still has confidence in the justice and fairness of America and its legal system, and — if necessary — will work with US Steel to consider and take all available measures to reach a fair conclusion.”The takeover was agreed by the companies around a year ago.US Steel says it needs the Nippon deal to ensure sufficient investment in plants in Pennsylvania, which it warns it may have to shutter if the sale is blocked.But the buyout has been fiercely condemned by the United Steelworkers union — even as Nippon promised investments to keep Pennsylvania factories competitive and newer “mini mills” in the American South.- Trump ‘totally against’ deal -After the deal was first announced, Biden said it was “vital” that US Steel be “domestically owned and operated”.”I told our steelworkers I have their backs, and I meant it,” he also said in March.Even so, days after the November US election, Nippon Steel said it expected to close its takeover of the company before the end of the year, while Biden was still in office.President-elect Donald Trump — who is to be inaugurated on January 20 — has also vowed to block the deal, pledging to bolster US Steel through tax incentives and tariffs instead.”I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company,” Trump wrote earlier this month on his Truth Social platform.In reaction to the Bloomberg report, the White House said Biden was awaiting the outcome of the ongoing review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), helmed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.”The president’s position since the beginning is that it is vital for US steel to be domestically owned and operated,” spokeswoman Robyn Patterson said.”We have not received any CFIUS recommendation. The CFIUS process was and remains ongoing.”US Steel shares closed down 9.7 percent Tuesday on Wall Street following the report. Nippon was down 0.4 percent in Tokyo on Wednesday.Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment directly on the deal but said Japan and the United States would continue “broad” discussions on economic matters.”It is essential for both sides to strengthen Japan-US economic ties, including the expansion of mutual investment,” Hayashi said.

China’s leadership will gather Wednesday to hammer out plans to boost the economy next year, reports said, as they look to address weak domestic demand and the possibility of a deepening trade war with the United States.The annual Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC) is being closely watched by investors for signs of coming stimulus to kickstart growth, which has been hampered by sluggish consumption and a protracted crisis in the property sector.Beijing is also strapping in for four more years of tensions with the United States under President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to impose stinging tariffs on China.The closed-door economic meeting is expected to run through Thursday, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.Beijing is yet to confirm the conclave will take place, but it typically convenes in the final month of the year and is attended by President Xi Jinping.The gathering follows a meeting on Monday of the Politburo — the country’s top decision-making body — at which officials urged “vigorous” support for consumers next year.The top leadership also called for a “moderately loose” monetary policy in 2025, in what analysts said marked a key shift from the “prudent” approach adopted for more than a decade.Beijing has in recent months unveiled a string of measures intended to boost the economy as they race to achieve an annual growth target of around five percent this year.Xi on Tuesday said the country was “fully confident” it would hit that goal.The measures include key rate cuts, the easing of certain homebuying restrictions and trade-in programmes intended to boost consumption.The readout of Monday’s meeting “leaves little doubt that the shift toward a more supportive policy stance that began back in September is still alive and well”, Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics, said in a note.”We do expect the (central bank) to step up the pace of rate cuts next year,” he added.But he warned “it is unlikely that they will cut rates anywhere near as aggressively as they did during the (global financial crisis)”.Beyond monetary policy, some analysts believe Chinese leaders might move more aggressively to shore up demand at home.”Monetary stimulus will only work if Beijing lifts broader business and household confidence,” Shehzad Qazi, managing director of consultancy firm China Beige Book, told AFP.While the Politburo meeting aided a bump in Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks on Tuesday, many observers say they are still waiting to see specific policy announcements on how Beijing plans to boost growth in the coming year.”So far there is still no focus on major household side stimulus, which would actually help lift consumer spending in 2025 and beyond,” said Qazi.

Ex-employees of a Japanese textile company in Ecuador told Tuesday of their dire living and working conditions, after the country’s constitutional court ruled the firm kept its staff in a slave-like setting.Some gave birth to children in unsanitary and overcrowded camps, while others were denied proper medical attention after work-related injuries, according to testimonies given at a news conference in Quito. Justices last week ordered the company, Furukawa, to pay $120,000 to each of the 342 victims — a total of around $41 million. It will also have to make a public apology to them. As of 2021, Furukawa’s plantations for abaca — a fine plant fiber — covered almost 23,000 hectares spread over three provinces on the Pacific coast, where the majority of the population is Black.”We have been confronting the monster that is Furukawa,” Segundo Ordonez, a 59-year-old farmer, told Tuesday’s meeting at the headquarters of Ecuador’s Ecumenical Human Rights Commission (CEDHU).He recalled a lack of medical attention on the plantations, where nine people died in work-related accidents.”A friend was cut, we were working in a downpour. That was the most anger I felt, seeing him shedding blood like an animal and nobody doing anything,” Ordonez said.Maria Guerrero recounted that her parents took her and six siblings to the Furukawa crops when she was two years old. She knew no other place for three decades and met her husband there, with whom she had seven children.”I gave birth to all my children in the company, I did not have a postpartum check-up or a medical check-up during my pregnancy. It is something I will always carry in my heart as a wound,” the 39-year-old said.Furukawa contested the constitutional court’s decision, arguing that there were inconsistencies and asking for a downward revision of the financial compensation ordered, which it deemed impossible to comply with.