Dow-DuPont Merger May Be Challenged
June 1, 2016 The American Antitrust Institute, Food & Water Watch and National Farmers Union have urged the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division to challenge the proposed merger of Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co., according to a report on MorningAgClips.com.
In a letter sent to the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Renata Hesse, the American Antitrust Institute (AAI), Food & Water Watch (FWW) and National Farmers Union (NFU) urged the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division to challenge the proposed merger of Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co.
The letter details the group’s analysis of the proposed merger that would create the largest biotechnology and seed firm in the U.S. The deal would further consolidate an already highly concentrated biotechnology industry and would likely curtail innovation, raise prices, and reduce cultivation choices for farmers, consumers and the food system.
AAI, FWW, and NFU urge the DOJ to critically review the implications of the pending deal. The letter unpacks three major areas of concern, including eliminating head-to-head competition in the corn and soybean markets, reducing vital innovation competition, and creating a large, integrated “platform” of traits, seeds, and chemicals that would make it harder for smaller biotechnology rivals to compete.
The groups point out that aggressive consolidation in agriculture, specifically in the agricultural inputs sector, has changed the landscape for independent crop input companies as well as for independent producers. The current rumored or announced deals — including Dow-DuPont, ChemChina-Syngenta, and Bayer-Monsanto — would be a third wave of consolidation. Two previous merger waves eliminated the majority of small to medium-sized biotechnology R&D firms to create the Big Six — Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, DuPont, Dow, and BASF.
“Any consolidation among the Big Six firms should raise significant antitrust concerns. We encourage the DOJ to move to stop it, as it has in other recent and unfixable mergers that would leave only a few large players,” explained AAI’s President, economist Diana Moss.
Read the full story on MorningAgClips.com.
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