Ports row may have hit Arab investment in US: IMF

[NVMojo]

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that the Dubai Ports row may have had an impact on investment flows to the United States from Arab countries, an increasingly important source of financing for the U.S. trade deficit.

Dubai Ports World, a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates, agreed to relinquish control of facilities at six major U.S. ports earlier this year after American politicians viewed it as a threat to U.S. national security.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Arab investors have feared that their assets in the West could be targeted for security reasons. The row sparked by Dubai Ports takeover of British firm P&O, which operated the ports in the United States, reinforced those fears.


"Clearly that was a very political issue," said Mohsin Khan, director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia department.

more....

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-06-06T171829Z_01_L06573865_RTRUKOC_0_US-ECONOMY-USA-INVESTMENT.xml&src=rss

[dufrenne]

1. I think

the whole ports issue was a poor showing by dems and libs, who ended up playing the same game republicans do...It was pure politics and racism. Merely because it was an Arab company, as opposed to let's say, a European one. This is the exact kind of thinking - painting all Arabs with one brushstroke - that we should be working against.

[larrysh]

2. I agree....

We made ourselves look foolish, backward, and ignorant on that one....and hurt the country as a whole.....solely for the benefit
of grandstanding politicians....

[Greyhound]

5. I don;t think the controversy was so much about them being

Arab as much as it was about their continued support of terrorists organizations and their steadfast refusal to constrain their private citizens support of terrorism.

OTOH, we seem to have no problem with Saudi Arabia witch is even less cooperative.

[reality based]

3. Has Dubai Ports World ever followed up on the commitment to divest

itself of the US ports?

[NVMojo]

4. seems like I read something about that recently ...

will search