| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
President Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States and the nation's longest-lived leader, passed away last month at the age of 100. | |
| Joined C-SPAN for live coverage of the state funeral. | ||
| Today, his journey continues to Washington, D.C., where he'll lie in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda with a service attended by members of Congress. | ||
| The public will again have the chance to honor him on Wednesday as his body remains in state at the U.S. Capitol. | ||
| On Thursday, the national funeral service will take place at Washington National Cathedral, followed by his final resting ceremony at the Carter family home in Plains, Georgia. | ||
| Watch C-SPAN's live coverage of the funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter on the C-SPAN Networks, C-SPAN now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Our next guest is Christy McDaniel. | ||
| She's a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center. | ||
| She served as the senior trade economist in the George Bush W. Bush administration at the White House from 2005 to 2007, here to talk about a pending decision concerning U.S. steel and protest and pushback from the Biden administration. | ||
| Ms. McDaniel, thanks for giving us your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| For those who are maybe not following as close as you are on this story, explain what has happened in the last few days concerning U.S. steel. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the last few days, on January 3rd, President Biden officially blocked the deal. | |
| The Japanese steelmaker, Nipbone Steel, had made an offer to acquire U.S. steel, and they were trying to work the deal out. | ||
| The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, it's called CPHIUS. | ||
| You'll hear a lot about that in this case, CIPIS. | ||
| The Treasury-led, it's an interagency group of people that make sure that large enough deals or deals that might off a red flag are legit and credible and don't pose any national security risks. | ||
| So CFIAS did their investigation. | ||
| They were, they couldn't come to a conclusive result. | ||
| So they kitchened up to the president and President Biden blocked it. | ||
| So President Biden said that there was credible evidence that the Japanese steelmaker might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States. | ||
| And that's where we are now. | ||
| Both sides have taken this to court. | ||
| People say it'll probably be held up in the courts for a while. | ||
| And then the next administration, the Trump administration, will likely play a key role in deciding how this ends up. | ||
| Why was Nippon Steel interested in U.S. steel? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I mean, foreign mergers and acquisitions, cross-borders happen all the time. | |
| Somebody sees an opportunity and they propose a merge or acquisition. | ||
| In this case, it sounds like at least what Nippon Steele said, that they saw an opportunity to invest in U.S. Steel. | ||
| In terms of their comparative advantage was integration into global value chains and arguably superior firm-specific capital and technology and more advanced innovative production Techniques. | ||
| They wanted to bring that to U.S. steel. | ||
| Plus, U.S. steel being inside the U.S., you know, they are protected from the tariffs, right? | ||
| So, somewhat similar to remember in the Reagan years when Reagan started putting up all those barriers for imported automobiles, and then what happened was Japanese automakers jumped over the tariffs and started making the stuff, making their cars in the U.S. Kind of the same thing going on here. | ||
| You know, they see the U.S. getting more and more protectionist. | ||
| So, they want to invest in the United States and be kind of protected themselves, not be harmed by those tariffs. | ||
| So, it has the potential to be a win-win for the Japanese steel maker and the U.S. steelmaker and the workers, because with that huge capital injection, it could keep U.S. steel going. | ||
| When you say keep U.S. steel going, can you elaborate? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, U.S. steel has been struggling on and off for decades now. | |
| The steel industry in general in the U.S. has been asking for protection from import competition for also for decades. | ||
| Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. | ||
| Even if it works in the short term, eventually, you know, global economic realities catch up and they come back asking for more production. | ||
| In President Bush's administration, that happened. | ||
| And then a lot of anti-dumping counterbailing duties continued before and after that, special Bush safeguard case. | ||
| And then, of course, President Trump used a national security tool, Section 232, for more tariffs for steel. | ||
| And, you know, so there's just been this industry is one that just is constantly seeking protection from foreign import competition. | ||
| And, you know, whether that's right or wrong, you know, that's just the reality of the situation. | ||
| And U.S. steel, for the most part, is not necessarily globally competitive. | ||
| There are components, parts of the sector that are fairly competitive globally, but overall, you know, U.S. steel prices do tend to be higher than global prices. | ||
| Christine McDaniel, for this conversation concerning this potential sale of U.S. steel to a Japanese company, if you want to ask her questions about it and the issues that she's talked about, 202748-8000 for Democrats, 202748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text us your questions or comments at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Ms. McDaniels, here is the part of the statement from President Biden concerning his concerns about the sale, saying this: a strong domestically owned and operated steel industry represents an essential national security priority and is critical for resilient supply chains. | ||
| That's because steel powers our country, our infrastructure, our auto industry, our defense industrial base. | ||
| As a committee of national security and trade experts across the executive branch, determined this acquisition would place one of America's largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and critical supply chains. | ||
| So that is why I am taking action to block this deal. | ||
| That being said, has there been a specific given about what the national security concerns are? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, we haven't seen anything publicly given yet. | |
| No publicly available details on that so-called credible national security threat. | ||
| So They don't necessarily have to make it public, but maybe it's there, maybe it's not. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| But so far, it hasn't been publicly detailed what that credible national security threat is. | ||
| And it was interesting, too, that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is a committee of several agencies: Treasury, Pentagon, State, Commerce, etc. | ||
| And this time, there was some reportedly some, it wasn't unanimous consent among all the members. | ||
| And reportedly, Treasury, State, and the Pentagon all agreed that there was no national security threat. | ||
| So that's why it was kind of surprising that the White House did say there was a credible national security threat, when the Pentagon themselves say there isn't. | ||
| But that's all we know publicly. |