2024-01-31 20:44:08 ET
Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday promised to block the proposed sale of U.S. Steel to a Japanese firm if he wins the 2024 presidential election.
Trump is the presumed Republican candidate for the presidency despite not yet being formally declared the GOP's nominee.
He met with the president of the Teamsters Union in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, during which he announced his intent to block the $15 billion sale of United States Steel Corp. to the Japanese company Nippon Steel Corp., Politico reported .
Trump said the federal government saved the nation's steel industry and now it would be "so terrible" for Nippon Steel to buy the U.S. company. "I would block it instantaneously. Absolutely," Trump told reporters .
The United Steelworkers union opposes the sale that was proposed in December. President Joe Biden , likewise, has said his administration would scrutinize the proposed asset transfer for a foreign entity.
Trump didn't indicate how his administration would block the sale but told reporters he wants to bring manufacturing back to the United States and impose higher tariffs, including up to a 40% tariff on Chinese products and a 10% tariff for other imported items.
"I want to make the cars sold in China here in the United States, and I think we'll do that," he told Politico.
Biden's campaign response director Ammar Moussa dismissed Trump's comments as political rhetoric.
"He does nothing while factories close and jobs are lost," Moussa told Trib Live .