President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stand side by side during a state visit ceremony at the White House.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
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Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stand side by side during a state visit ceremony at the White House.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden officially welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the White House on Wednesday for an official state visit, an honor that includes a meeting in the Oval Office, a press conference and then a lavish state dinner with a performance by Paul Simon.
Japan has long been one of America’s closest allies, and the Biden administration has sought to strengthen the relationship further as part of its efforts to counter China.
“Today, our economic relationship is one of the strongest and deepest in the world,” Biden told Kishida during the welcoming ceremony.
But Biden objected to Japan’s Nippon Steel’s recent move to buy U.S. Steel for nearly $15 billion, an unusual intervention that raised questions about the economic relationship between the two countries.
A senior administration official told reporters that the topic was not on the agenda for the meeting between Biden and Kishida.
“The relationship between the United States and Japan is much larger and more meaningful than a single trade deal,” said an unnamed official.
Biden says U.S. Steel should be in American hands
Last month, when Biden took the unusual step of weighing in on the deal, he sided with union workers and said the Pittsburgh-based company remained in U.S. hands. Former President Donald Trump, who is running against Biden in the November presidential election, also said he would block it.
“US Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is important that it remains a domestically owned and operated American steel company,” Biden said in a statement . The United Steelworkers union endorsed his re-election campaign less than a week later.
President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida walk the colonnade as they prepare for a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House.
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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida walk the colonnade as they prepare for a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Biden’s intervention could discourage foreign investment.
Scott Lincicome, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, told NPR that Biden’s decision to oppose the deal shows it was a political choice. Biden needs the support of union workers this November, and Pennsylvania is a key swing state.
“That really sends a bad signal, not just to Japan but to the world that economics doesn’t drive the bus,” Lincicome said. “What drives the bus, first and foremost, is politics.”
Lincicome said the reality is that American steel has cultural significance that goes beyond its economic value.
Dan Price, a top international economic official in the George W. Bush White House, said it was surprising that Biden would object to a deal under the special interagency national security review mechanism. is when the deal is made with a company from a country with such views. close ally.
“During the prime minister’s visit, the leaders will discuss real national security threats,” said Price, now managing director of Rock Creek Global Advisors. “So we should seek to strengthen our partnership, not threaten protectionist action to score political points.”
There is a long list of other ‘deliverables’ for this meeting
The White House is trying to illustrate its deep relationship with Japan with an unusually long list of agreements or “deliverables” between the two countries – more than 70 items. Typically, a state visit can see dozens of such agreements.
Many categories address security issues, including new levels of military cooperation, joint arms production, space exploration cooperation, and new research projects in the field of artificial intelligence with companies like Microsoft and Amazon.
Countering China is the main theme of the visit, officials told reporters. On Thursday, Biden and Kishida will participate in a trilateral meeting with Philippine President Ferninand Marcos Jr. One senior administration official described the strategy as a way to “flip the script” on China, which has often tried to isolate countries in the region.
“The isolated country is China, not the Philippines,” the official said.
