Here's what might be an obvious question, but I haven't seen it asked.
Assuming( which I don't) that the UAE only wants this deal because they will monetarily profit from it; why not buy port rights elsewhere? How many ports are there in the world?
How hard up for profit is the UAE? They still have billions to throw around, let them buy into ports elsewhere.I'm sure there are many countries who would sell more than we would to them. It's not like they will collapse and die if they don't get a US deal.
They already do operate terminals all over the world, including Australia and Singapore. Dubai Ports World is to terminal operation as McDonalds is to Hamburgers. It;s waht they are good at, that's why they want to keep doing it.
80% of our terminals are operated by foreighn companies. Are we going to force sale of all of them? A lot of political demogoguery going on here.
They bought an entire company, P&O, of which the american assets were but a small part.
They weren't really buying the terminal rights in the U.S., they wanted major port control in other countries, and to gain more port-to-port control (you can make a lot more money if you own both ends of a shipment).
Now they will get almost all the ports they wanted, and will probably make a little money selling the U.S. subsidiaries.
I bet the people who work for the U.S. companies aren't happy -- the new owner won't be as deep-pocketed and won't spend the money that DP World would have.
I wonder if DP World is also divesting terminals it ALREADY CONTROLS in the U.S. The announcement was JUST about the assets from the P&O purchase.
Maybe congress will try to pass a law forcing all the other countries to do this same thing.