Editor,
It seems there is some consensus on the Dubai Ports World port management contracts. In Congress, there is a bipartisan uproar putting President Bush on the defensive. In an ironic twist of fate, liberal Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist stand united against the United Arab Emirates-based corporation.
Newspapers all over the country have written scathing editorials critical of the impending sale. The New York Times reported that 70 percent of Americans disapprove of the ports deal. Six years into his term, when President Bush's approval ratings have dropped to a record low of 34 percent, I find myself siding with our embattled president on the principles of free trade.
Brian Fejer in his letter to the editor in Thursday's Daily Lobo asserted that the reason the ports deal went down was because members of the government were not paying attention. And while I might agree that in some situations - like Katrina perhaps - our government has been to slow to recognize the most salient issues, the ports deal is not one of those issues. Theoretically, this transaction should be routine. Foreign corporations manage hundreds of ports throughout the United States. Populist outcry over the deal is based on isolationism and xenophobia.
The United States is now experiencing a crisis of confidence throughout the world. Anti-American demonstrations marred Bush's visit to supposedly friendly India. Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile have recently elected anti-American leftist governments ready to cash-in on vehement anti-American sentiment. Pro-American governments in the Arab world - such as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates - are paying a hefty political price for their allegiance. The United States needs all the friends it can get.
Expanding trade and harmonizing commercial interests is the United States' best strategy for encouraging global peace and stability. Trade is a positive-sum game and it has the potential to benefit everyone and cement international cooperation. The United States has the comparative advantage in strategic industries like financial markets, aerospace and technology. The United States is not yet in decline, because outsourcing is a two-way street - but we will be if we are unwilling to bring our talents to the marketplace and retreat into isolationism.
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The hullabaloo over the ports deal will make Arab investors increasingly unwilling to do business in the United States if they must factor a political risk premium into their cost structure. Dubai Ports World has voluntarily submitted itself to further security review, which is unnecessary and expensive.
It seems President Bush has made his bed and must now lay in it.
This is the fruit of six years of fear mongering.
Austin Duus
UNM student
