US: More than 1 million petition Trump Administration to reject merger

Critics of agricultural consolidation joined forces Tuesday, November 14, in Washington to release reports calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reject the merger between Bayer AG and Monsanto Co.

Gathering at the National Press Club to air their grievances against the US$63.5 billion merger were the Organization of Competitive Markets, the National Family Farm Coalition, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, Consumer Federation of America, Friends of the Earth, the Open Markets Institute and the group SumOfUs.

The groups also stated they delivered more than 1 million signatures on a petition to the DOJ calling on the department to block the proposed merger.

Bayer and Monsanto announced their merger in September 2016 and it continues to get regulatory scrutiny globally. The European Commission last week announced a March 5, 2018, deadline to complete its regulatory review of the company. Bayer already has agreed to sell some seed and herbicide businesses to BASF as a condition to completing the deal. Originally, the deal was valued at US$66 billion, but Bayer revalued the merger deal at US$63.5 billion last month, according to Reuters.

Combined, Bayer and Monsanto would be the world’s largest integrated pesticides and seeds company, the EU noted in August when it began vetting the merger. At the time, the EU listed several preliminary concerns about market impacts.

Multiple farm groups have written the DOJ over the past year expressing concerns about the merger as well.

Makan Delrahim, who heads the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice, was confirmed in late September. The Trump administration has not made any official comments about the Bayer-Monsanto merger.

Because Bayer is based in Germany, the sale must also go through the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the US The companies stated last summer they were continuing to move through the CFIUS process, but there has been no announcement whether the merger has been approved by the committee, which does not release information on its proceedings to the public.

Full Content: Europa

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