US Steel xenophobia is precisely how not to compete with China

It left me scratching my head last month when Donald Trump's former commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, felt compelled to strongly back the proposed Nippon Steel acquisition of U.S. Steel in a Wall St. Journal oped. At the same time, a bipartisan gaggle of outraged U.S. senators denounced the deal. Ross, who was CEO of major steel companies, laid out a persuasive fact-based case that there is no economic or national security threat from the merger, arguing the attacks "only create unnecessary geopolitical tensions, and those, not the acquisition itself, could endanger American national security." Conservative Columnist George Will echoed this….