Biden vows to block merger

President also calls for higher tariffs on steel imports from China

PITTSBURGH » President Joe Biden promised c heering unionized steelworkers on Wednesday that his administration would block the acquisition of U. S. Steel by a Japanese company, and he called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel, seeking to use trade policy to win over working- class votes in Pennsylvania, a n electionyear battleground.

Biden said d uring a visit to the headquarters of the United Steelworkers t hat U. S. S teel “has b een an i conic American company for more t han a century and it should remain totally American.”

“American- owned, A merican operated b y American union steelworkers — t he b est in t he world — and that’s going to happen I promise you,” he said.

The Democrat’s administration is reviewing the proposed acquisition of U. S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel.

The president said last month he would oppose the deal, saying it was “vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”

But in front of a pro- union audience, he went much further in promising to block the deal. “The backbone of America has a steel spine,” Biden said.

In another move that his administration argues can protect domestic s teelworkers, Biden also announced that he will push f or t he h igher tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, aiming t o insulate A merican producers from a flood of cheap imports.

The moves reflected the intersection of Biden’s i nternational trade policy with his reelection effort, although the White House insisted t hey were more about shielding American manufacturing from unfair trade practices overseas than firing up a union audience.

The current tariff rate is 7.5% for both s teel a nd a luminum but could climb to 22.5% under Biden’s proposal.

The president said he was asking his trade representative t o seek the increase.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the “U. S. is making the same mistake again and again” by seeking increased t ariffs. I n a statement, he also d ismissed those levies a lready in place as “the e mbodiment of u nilateralism and protectionism of the U. S.”

Biden insisted t hat getting tougher on China was sound policy.

“I made sure that we had the

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