Ports Breakthrough?

Fire of Liberty
As I watched the discussions on the whole port deal on MSNBC's Hardball and Fox News's Special Report with Brit Hume I see that the protectionistic forces within the US government seem to be prevailing in their efforts to block the current transfer of the six US ports from the British owned P&O to the UAE controlled Dubai Ports World. You pretty much know that things are going south when the House Appropriations Committee votes 62-2 to put the kibosh on the whole deal and both chambers are threatening to make their decision veto proof by including the legislation in a appropriation bill for Afghanistan, Iraq and Katrina relief. With all of this going on, no wonder the folks of Dubai Ports World has decided to divest themselves or sell the US ports to some other buyer. Just look at what the Financial Times had to report on the company recent move:

Edward Bilkey, the company'’s chief operating officer, said in a statement: "Because of the strong relationship between the UAE and the US and to preserve that relationship...DP World will transfer fully the US operation of P&O Ports North America Inc. to a US entity."” He said the decision was made by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, prime minister of the UAE and ruler of the emirate of Dubai.

The statement was read in the US Senate by John Warner, Republican chairman of the armed services committee, who helped broker the compromise.

DP World, which had insisted it would maintain control of the US ports, made the move after finalising its $6.8bn takeover of Britain'’s P&O on Thursday.

The US ports facilities were only a small portion of P&O'’s global holdings but their acquisition by an Arab company sparked a storm of protest from lawmakers who said it could endanger US security.

Hopefully this decision by DPW will stave off any protectionistic leanings that are so prevalent within the halls of Congress today but if I know the folks pushing such ideas I know they'll be encouraged to come out even stronger if another deal like this emerges anytime soon.