For information........ "Most US Ports Are Foreign-Run" In 2006 a controversy arose in the US pertaining to management contracts of six major United States ports Dubai Ports World was a company owned by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates via a holding company which was under the direct control of the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who was also the prime minister of the UAE. There was considerable opposition to the plan despite the fact that - OVER 80 PERCENT OF THE TERMINALS IN THE USA WERE ALREADY CONTROLLED BY FOREIGN OWNERS. An interview at the time between Adam Davidson the correspondent for International Business and Economics for National Public Radio and Joe King, former chief of the terrorism unit at US Customs gives some of the actual facts Joe King: There is always a debate in the US government between trade and security. In the last twenty years, trade is winning. Davidson: Even King says that foreign ownership is inevitable. Too much security could cause real pain. King: You'd have containers backed up so you could walk across the Pacific Ocean, they'd be so tightly packed. Davidson: Some, like Senator Hillary Clinton, have suggested that the US should allow foreign companies to run US terminals but forbid companies owned by foreign governments. That's almost equally impossible, says Tirschwell of the Journal of Commerce. He points out that foreign governments have interests in many US ports. The government of Singapore owns most of a company that operates terminals in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Two Chinese companies, both with close ties to the Chinese government, manage terminals in New York, Long Beach, and other places. And the government of Venezuela owns all or part of marine terminal management at ports in Pennsylvania and Maine.
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