The Biden administration avoided one of the more challenging early tests of its climate agenda Saturday, when two South Korean battery giants feuding over trade secrets reached a settlement to keep a massive Georgia factory complex open, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

The White House faced a Sunday deadline to decide whether to veto a U.S. International Trade Commission decision from February that barred SK Innovation from importing the materials needed to build electric vehicle batteries at a $2.6 billion pair of plants in Commerce, Georgia.

As late as Friday night, the company looked far from a deal with Seoul-based rival LG Energy Solutions, which convinced the federal trade court that SK Innovation destroyed evidence of stolen trade secrets. In February, the ITC imposed a 10-year import ban on SK Innovation, jeopardizing the supply of batteries for Fords electric F-150 pickup and Volkswagens Crossover series and threatening the 2,600 jobs the company planned to fill in Georgia over the next few years.

The ruling also risked delaying President Joe Biden s plans to electrify the nations 276 million some-odd automobiles, the top U.S. source of climate pollution.

The $1.8 billion cash deal will also end other ongoing lawsuits between the two companies in the U.S. and South Korea, including one in a federal court in Delaware that had been on pause until the ITC saga reached its completion.

We have decided to settle and to compete in an amicable way, all for the future of the U.S. and South Korean electric vehicle battery industries, SK Innovation CEO Jun Kim and LG Energy Solution CEO Jong Hyun Kim said in a joint statement Sunday morning. In particular, we will work together to strengthen an EV battery domestic supply chain and support the U.S. Biden Administrations effort to advance green energy policies and environmental responsibility.

SK Innovations plant will comprise upward of 35% of the U.S. production capacity of electric vehicle batteries by the end of Bidens first term, when the country is expected to have roughly 11 big powerpack-making factories online.