The Briefing Room
Exclusive Content => News => Topic started by: geronl on March 04, 2017, 02:13:30 am
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The Trump administration’s decision to exempt the Keystone XL pipeline from “Buy American” rules could benefit one company in particular: the steel giant that newly minted Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross invested in and helped run for a decade.
Two days after Ross was confirmed, the White House announced that Commerce will not apply those rules to the project. “The Keystone XL Pipeline is currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipeline,” a White House spokesperson told Politico.
The pipeline’s exemption from Buy American rules could benefit Luxembourg-based company ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel manufacturer. Ross, a billionaire investor and leveraged buyout specialist, sat on the company’s board until Wednesday, and in January disclosed equity holdings of between $750,000 and $1.5 million.
ArcelorMittal has provided large amounts of material for the Keystone pipeline. According to company documentation, its plant in Bremen, Germany, sold dozens of kilotons of steel to Arkansas-based Welspun Tubular, which used the material to manufacture spiral welded pipe for the project.
excerpted
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/03/buy-american-rule-for-keystone-pipeline-dropped-after-ex-foreign-steel-exec-became-commerce-secretary.html
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@AbaraXas
Huge conflict of interest going on here
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@AbaraXas
Huge conflict of interest going on here
What's a little quid pro quo between friends?
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The Philippine trade Envoy to DC is a huge business partner of Trumps. Duterte knows how to play Trump.
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Putting the "crony" back into crony capitalism.
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Ross, a billionaire investor and leveraged buyout specialist, sat on the company’s board until Wednesday, and in January disclosed equity holdings of between $750,000 and $1.5 million.
Let's see. $1.5 million is a little less than 0.2% of $1 billion. So we are talking about appreciation as a result of increases in share market value, which would be a fraction of the total value of the holdings. Talk about nit picking!! Is that the best you nice folks can do? heh heh the term "microscopically small potatoes" comes to mind.
On the other hand, the increased value to the U.S. economy and of jobs in going forward with the project is yuge.
BTW, you folks may not have noticed, but the U.S.steel industry production has declined horribly in the last few decades to the point where our own domestic suppliers may well not have been able to provide the needed materials at a competitive price at the same quality. So the decision to exempt the company may have absolutely nothing to do with anything nefarious or untoward.
Of course, why wait for strong evidence of unethical behavior when it is so much more convenient and fun to simply jump to conclusions based on personal enmity.
Awaiting your substantive comeback and hitting my stopwatch NOW...
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BTW, you folks may not have noticed, but the U.S.steel industry production has declined horribly in the last few decades to the point where our own domestic suppliers may well not have been able to provide the needed materials at a competitive price at the same quality. So the decision to exempt the company may have absolutely nothing to do with anything nefarious or untoward.
I wonder what the folks living in Pittsburgh think of this arrangement?
If you will remember there was a time when U.S. steel producers were screaming bloody murder about Japan flooding the market with "cheap Jap steel". Prices for U.S. made steel had become so high the Japanese could buy the raw materials from the U.S., ship them half way around the world, produce the steel and then ship them all the way back again all at lower overall prices.
It's stunning to think that could possibly be true. Which begs the question: why had U.S. steel prices become exorbitantly high in the first place?