The Ministry of agriculture of USA (USDA) has agreed to join an American government Commission, which considers the planned acquisition of Chinese state-owned company ChemChina Swiss maker of seeds and pesticides Syngenta AG for $43 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.

This measure will expose the additional agreement the government's investigation and adopted after legislators wrote to the Minister of Finance Jacob Lew in March a request to USDA to be included in the consideration of the transaction to better assess its potential impact on food security of the country.

Lew heads the Committee on Foreign investment in the United States (CFIUS), which considers agreements for potential threats to national security and consists of representatives from 16 us departments, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of national security and the Ministry of defence.

The sources wished to remain anonymous, because the role of the USDA in CFIUS was not disclosed publicly.

The Finance Ministry declined to comment.

The USDA representative also declined to comment.

Syngenta declined comment. The Representative Of China National Chemical Corp., known as ChemChina, did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite the fact that the USDA is not one of the offices, including CFIUS, was the precedent of his participation in the review of the agreements. In 2013, CFIUS, with the participation of the USDA cleared the way for the purchase by the Chinese company Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd American meat company Smithfield Foods Inc.

Syngenta said at the beginning of the year, what will you do in the CFIUS voluntary registration agreements with Chinese state-owned firm even though during the preliminary checks are no obvious threats to national security was discovered.

Announced in February the agreement is the largest foreign acquisition in the history of the Chinese companies, because China is trying to secure food supplies for its population.

Syngenta, which is based in North Carolina and gets almost a quarter of the income in North America, is the largest seller of pesticides in North America and is also a key player in the sector of seeds. The company has other businesses in North Carolina, as well as the presence in California, Delaware, Iowa, Minnesota and other States.

Source: Thomson Reuters