Nippon Steel is dropping a lawsuit against the United States government, chairman and CEO Eiji Hashimoto said as the company finalized its acquisition of United States Steel after an 18-month battle to complete the transaction.

The suit has been rendered moot as a result of the successful purchase of the American steel-maker, Hashimoto said in reply to a question from The Japan Times after his meeting with trade minister Yoji Muto on Thursday evening.

¡°We were able to achieve our objective, so there is no longer a meaningful reason to continue that case ¡ª in a good sense,¡± he explained.

A separate civil suit against a competitor and a union leader has not yet been dropped.

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel filed the lawsuit against the U.S. government in January to challenge former U.S. President Joe Biden¡¯s blocking of the transaction on national security grounds. They argued that the companies were denied due process and other rights, and claimed that the $14.9 billion transaction was blocked for political reasons.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who had voiced opposition to the deal during his presidential campaign, reversed his predecessor¡¯s decision last week. He said the Japanese firm could buy the U.S. company if it signed a national security agreement with the U.S. government.

Nippon Steel finalized the transaction on Wednesday.

The civil suit alleges that United Steelworkers union President David McCall, Cleveland-Cliffs and Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, engaged in ¡°illegal and coordinated actions¡± to sabotage the U.S. Steel acquisition.

Goncalves has dismissed Nippon Steel¡¯s claims, saying the accusations are ¡°baseless.¡±

An outspoken critic of the Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel deal, Goncalves described Japan as ¡°evil¡± for ¡°teaching China how to dump steel.¡± In the lawsuit, he was accused of launching a ¡°public smear campaign¡± and ¡°trafficking in xenophobic stereotypes¡± about foreign investors to kill the deal.

Cleveland-Cliffs made an in July 2023 to purchase U.S. Steel for $35 a share ¡ª later raised to $54, according to reports ¡ª in cash and stock. Nippon Steel made an all-cash a share.

McCall, who has been vocal in his opposition to the Nippon Steel transaction from the outset, said in a Wednesday statement that the union will ¡°continue watching¡± and hold Nippon Steel to its commitments.

¡°We will decide how to proceed after closely observing how the other parties respond, so no final decision has been made on that yet,¡± Hashimoto said of the civil lawsuit.