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Didn't the US government stop this exact same thing from happening 20 years ago over national security concerns?

by codexb 3y ago

h2odragon 3y ago
an easy response is "Our government no longer believes steel is critical to our national security" Cant find mention of US steel being sold, perhaps this? > In 1984, the federal government prevented U.S. Steel from acquiring National Steel, and political pressure from the United States Congress, as well as the United Steelworkers (USW), forced the company to abandon plans to import British Steel Corporation slabs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Steel
- vasco 3y ago
  The country that will acquire is also important in this equation. Russians were blocked from buying Oregon steel for example. Japan is more like a protectorate of the US than a fully independent country post WW2, with specific articles of the constitution that block army sizes, specific military equipment, agreements for maintenance of permanent US bases and troops in the country etc. Even when recently they decided to re-interpret these articles this was done only with the express permission of the US.
  - xp84 3y ago
    True that there is no more loyal ally than Japan aside from perhaps Canada. Kind of miraculous that that happened, honestly, considering that the phase of our relationship immediately before this was "fighting to the death" followed by "atomic bomb dropping" -- but I'm grateful that somehow it has come to be an enduring friendship both politically and really culturally as well.
    - vasco 3y ago
      I mean, the US did a huge occupation and education campaign which depending on how you categorize "force someone to keep your army within their borders" could even be seen as them not actually being sovereign. People are fast to forget that part the same way they forget Poland was only liberated truly in 1989, it's not such a good story when you include those parts.
  - fomine3 3y ago
    Japan was one of the biggest trade threat for the US until around 2000, caused many trade conflicts, so perhaps this would be stopped if it's in 1985. It's no longer so big, now it's China.
- codexb 3y ago
  I was thinking shortly after 9/11, when US Steel was essentially going bankrupt and we bailed them out by propping up prices with tariffs -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_United_States_steel_tariff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_United_States_steel_tarif...

Didn't the US government stop this exact same thing from happening 20 years ago over national security concerns?

by codexb 3y ago

Didn't the US government stop this exact same thing from happening 20 years ago over national security concerns?

an easy response is "Our government no longer believes steel is critical to our national security" Cant find mention of US steel being sold, perhaps this? > In 1984, the federal government prevented U.S. Steel from acquiring National Steel, and political pressure from the United States Congress, as well as the United Steelworkers (USW), forced the company to abandon plans to import British Steel Corporation slabs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Steel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Steel

vasco 3y ago
The country that will acquire is also important in this equation. Russians were blocked from buying Oregon steel for example. Japan is more like a protectorate of the US than a fully independent country post WW2, with specific articles of the constitution that block army sizes, specific military equipment, agreements for maintenance of permanent US bases and troops in the country etc. Even when recently they decided to re-interpret these articles this was done only with the express permission of the US.
- xp84 3y ago
  True that there is no more loyal ally than Japan aside from perhaps Canada. Kind of miraculous that that happened, honestly, considering that the phase of our relationship immediately before this was "fighting to the death" followed by "atomic bomb dropping" -- but I'm grateful that somehow it has come to be an enduring friendship both politically and really culturally as well.
  - vasco 3y ago
    I mean, the US did a huge occupation and education campaign which depending on how you categorize "force someone to keep your army within their borders" could even be seen as them not actually being sovereign. People are fast to forget that part the same way they forget Poland was only liberated truly in 1989, it's not such a good story when you include those parts.
- fomine3 3y ago
  Japan was one of the biggest trade threat for the US until around 2000, caused many trade conflicts, so perhaps this would be stopped if it's in 1985. It's no longer so big, now it's China.
codexb 3y ago
I was thinking shortly after 9/11, when US Steel was essentially going bankrupt and we bailed them out by propping up prices with tariffs -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_United_States_steel_tariff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_United_States_steel_tarif...