A bipartisan group of senators urged the Treasury Department on Thursday to strengthen a national security review of Smithfield Foods‘ $4.7 billion sale to a Chinese meat processor by adding additional regulators to a panel of agencies considering the deal.
The group of 15 senators wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, who oversees the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, to add the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration to the group.
The letter was signed by most members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, led by its chairman, Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, and ranking member, Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi.
The letter is the latest sign of political discomfort with the sale of Smithfield to Shuanghui International, one of China’s biggest meat processors. While both companies have said repeatedly that the transaction poses no national security risk to the United States â€" the merger being spurred by a desire to export mor! e American pork to China, not the other way around â€" many lawmakers have remained skeptical that food safety standards here will not be compromised.
The deal is already under review by the committee, commonly known as Cfius, which is tasked with ensuring that an investment by a foreign entity does not pose risks to American security. It has historically been considered tough in its consideration of transactions in industries like energy, technology and aerospace, but has little precedent in examining food deals.
But the senators wrote in their letter that the Smithfield deal requires extra scrutiny.
“Any Cfius review of this transaction should look beyond any direct impact on government agencies and operations to the broader issues of food security, food safety, and biosecurity,†the group wrote.
Reresentatives for Smithfield and Shuanghui were not immediately available for comment.
The senators also questioned how Cfius will review similar food deals in the future.
