Opinion : Dubai Port Deal

Well the Company finally gave in, and congress is claiming victory. But is this good for the US? Probably not, because this is clearly sending the wrong message to other countries. For the last 100 years we have been pushing other countries to open up their economies to free trade as we have and telling them that capitalism should rule out over politics. Now we are slapping around one of the few arab countries that tried to follow this. First of all, I don't see how the person owning the equiptment has anything to do with Port security in an american port staffed with americans. Second, wouldn't arabs be less likely to attack ports that they own? If the government of Dubai wants to invest in making american freight hauling operations more efficient, why would we try to stop them. The fact that the ports used to be owned by a bunch of rich British men only reinforces the fact that the objections to this deal on the grounds of nationalism or globalism are baseless and irrational. Following are own principles, there is only one thing that I would have done differently if I was negotiating for the Bush administration: I would have demanded more money.

On a side note, I do wish that if the government outsources operations for anything, they should outsource them to American companies. The government would be getting more tax revenue (an automatic discount) and it would be helping the economy for the same amount of money. If the american contractors were not doing a good job, then the government should simply threaten to take the operation over themselves or hire a consultant, not sell the contract to foreigners.