Corporate Control of Ports Is the Problem

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Fri, 24 Feb 2006 15:04:56 -0500 (EST)

" Public Citizen " <publiccitizen

The Real Scandal with the Port Sell-Off Deal

 

 

 

Corporate Control of Ports Is the Problem

The Nation Online Beat

 

By John Nichols

 

Read John's Blog Online

 

The problem with the Bush administration's support for a move by a

United Arab Emirates-based firm to take over operation of six major

American ports -- as well as the shipment of military equipment

through two additional ports -- is not that the corporation in

question is Arab-owned.

 

The problem is that Dubai Ports World is a corporation. It happens to

be a corporation that is owned by the government of the United Arab

Emirates, or UAE, a nation that served as an operational and financial

base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of 9-11, and that

has stirred broad concern. But, even if the sale of operational

control of the ports to this firm did not raise security alarm bells,

it would be a bad idea.

 

Ports are essential pieces of the infrastructure of the United States,

and they are best run by public authorities that are accountable to

elected officials and the people those officials represent. While

traditional port authorities still exist, they are increasing

marginalized as privatization schemes have allowed corporations --

often with tough anti-union attitudes and even tougher bottom lines --

to take charge of more and more of the basic operations at the

nation's ports.

 

In the era when the federal government sees " homeland security " as a

slogan rather than a responsibility, allowing the nation's working

waterfronts to be run by private firms just doesn't work. It is no

secret that federal authorities have failed to mandate, let alone

implement, basic port security measures. But this is not merely a

federal failure; it is, as well, a private-sector failure. The private

firms that control so many of the nation's ports have not begun to set

up a solid system for waterfront security in the more than four years

since the September 11, 2001 attacks. And shifting control of the

ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and

Philadelphia -- along with control over the movement of military

equipment on behalf of the U.S. Army through the ports at Beaumont and

Corpus Christi -- from a British firm, Peninsular and Oriental Steam

Navigation Co., to Dubai Ports World, is not going to improve the

situation.

 

Unfortunately, the debate has been posed as a fight over whether

Arab-owned firms should be allowed to manage ports and other strategic

sites in the U.S. Media coverage of the debate sets up the

increasingly ridiculous Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff

-- who babbles bureaucratically about how, " We make sure there are

assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the

deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint " -- against

members of Congress -- who growl, as U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-New York,

did over the weekend about the need " to guard against things like

infiltration by al-Qaida or someone else. "

 

There are two fundamental facts about corporations that put this

controversy about who runs the ports in perspective.

 

First: Like most American firms, most Arab-owned firms are committed

to making money, and the vast majority of them are not about to

compromise their potential profits by throwing in with terrorists.

 

Second: Like most American firms, Arab-owned firms are more concerned

about satisfying shareholders than anything else. As such, they are

poor stewards of ports and other vital pieces of the national

infrastructure that still require the constant investment of public

funds, as well as responsible oversight by authorities that can see

more than a bottom line, in order to maintain public safety -- not to

mention the public good of modern, efficient transportation services.

 

Sign the petition here:

http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2713

 

 

[1] " U.S. Begins FTA Talks With UAE, Oman, Despite Labor Violations, "

Inside U.S. Trade, March 11, 2005.

[2] For more information about the GATS, go to:

http://www.citizen.org/trade/wto/gats/