Government seeks extension in USS-Nippon lawsuit as talks continue

USS and Nippon are seeking to overturn the government’s decision to block the Japanese company’s bid to buy U.S. Steel for $15 billion.

The government asked that the deadlines be extended by 21 days to April 7 and April 21 for responses. It also asked that oral argument be rescheduled from April 24 to the week of May 12.

“The requested extension will allow the government to complete its ongoing discussions with the parties regarding the U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel transaction with the goal of eliminating the need for this court’s resolution of the litigation on the merits,” the government said in the filing.

U.S. Steel and Japan-based Nippon agreed to the extension, but the final decision is up to the court, the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The case, United States Steel Corporation, et al. v. Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., et al., was filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Named respondents include CFIUS, President Donald Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Secretary of the Treasury and CFIUS Chairperson Scott Bessent. Former President Joe Biden and former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen were respondents listed as terminated from the case in January.

The companies filed their opening brief in February, arguing that then-President Joe Biden “made a predetermined decision for political reasons, not national security.”

Trump had loudly opposed the acquisition of the iconic Pittsburgh steelmaker by a foreign company. But in February during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, he said Nippon Steel had agreed to “invest heavily in U.S. Steel as opposed to own it.”

Of potential foreign ownership of the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, Trump said last month, “The concept, psychologically, not good.”

Ishiba echoed Trump’s comments about a major investment. “It is not an acquisition; it is investment,” the prime minister said, according to a translation of his remarks.