With his ‘golden share’ in U.S. Steel, Trump turns to a mechanism more common elsewhere in the world

U.S. President Donald Trump turned to a little-used mechanism—the “golden share”—to ensure that a Japanese-owned U.S. Steel doesn’t become a threat to national security. Nippon Steel, the U.S. steelmaker’s soon-to-be owner, is granting Washington special authority over the company’s operations, though the extent of those powers remains unknown. 

Yet while the practice is almost unheard of in the U.S., the “golden share” has popped up in other economies as a way to ensure government oversight—or control—over a company’s operations.