Growing criticism puzzles many in shipping industry

The Baltimore Sun ^ | February 22, 2006 | Meredith Cohn

[new yorker 77]

'We haven't done a good job of explaining how we work'

Just about any given time, it's possible to find a Greek-owned ship flying a Liberian flag, employing a Filipino crew and carrying cargo from China into a U.S. port terminal managed by a British company that hires American longshoremen.

This is how Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target and others get their socks and stereos for the U.S. consumer.

So, some in the shipping industry have been taken aback in the past week by growing criticism in Washington and in state capitals to a deal that would transfer control over some operations in several major U.S. ports from a British company to one owned by the government of Dubai.

"To be fair, we're on the edge of the world and we haven't done a good job explaining how we work, so people are confused by it," said Art Wong, a spokesman for the port of Long Beach, near Los Angeles.

.... skip to

In the major U.S. ports where Dubai Ports World would operate terminals - Baltimore, New York, New Jersey, Miami, New Orleans and Philadelphia - many of the shipping lines, the stevedores that load and unload ships and terminal operators have foreign owners.

The top 10 containership fleets are based in Denmark, Switzerland, Taiwan, China, Germany, France, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, said Peter S. Shaerf, managing director of AMA Capital Partners LLC, a merchant banking firm that focuses on the maritime and transportation industries. All call on U.S. ports, and some of the shipping lines manage terminals.

Other terminal operators with U.S. operations are based in England, Denmark and Hong Kong.

....

[takenoprisoner]

They weren't required then. anyway thanks for following. keep up the good work and you may learn even more.

[Coop]

I've learned a lot the past few days. Almost none of it from this port deal's critics.

Although they have provided me with an education on human behavior.

[goldstategop]

That's always been this way: foreigners are well represented in commercial activity in American ports. Unless we want to ban the rest of the world from trading here, the truth of the matter we're not going to get perfect security. And our economy and jobs depend on what we get from the outside world. We will never be completely self-sufficient economically. No nation is or can be. That is why, I too am taken somewhat aback by the brouhaha in Washington.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[sasha123]

At this point, one of the reason that the Admin wants to follow through on this deal is fear of back-lash from the Arab-community who we are seeking as ally's in the WOT.

This is similar to Zappatero's ploy in Spain. He used fear from the train attacks to win votes. Now, most of Spain's citizens hate him.