Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced a hearing on the increasing consolidation within the seed and chemical industry. The hearing will be held in late September.
The hearing is in response to the pending merger of Dow and DuPont and the takeover of Syngenta by a Chinese company. Monsanto meanwhile has spurned a bid from Bayer
Iowa lost out on a headquarters for the combined Dow and DuPont agriculture business, which will be spun off into a publicly traded company after the merger is completed. The headquarters of the agriculture company will be in Delaware.
However , DuPont’s Pioneer seed operations will remain in Iowa.
“The seed and chemical industries are critical to agriculture and the nation’s economy, and Iowans are concerned that this sudden consolidation in the industry could cause rising input costs in an already declining agriculture economy,” Grassley said.
The hearing will focus on the transactions currently being reviewed by antitrust regulators, and the current trend in the consolidation of the seed and chemical industries.
While details have not been finalized, views from the companies under review by antitrust regulators, consumers, and antitrust experts will all be represented at the hearing, a release stated.
Grassley is in a tough re-election battle, but hss held on to a lead of 7 percent or more in recent polls.
