Dubai Ports World Deal: Zim chief backs Dubai Ports World deal

Nowadays, many headlines in different newspapers are discussing the agreement that would give Dubai Ports World the control on six key ports in the U.S. some people are supporting the agreement and have strong relations with the company. On the other hand, some people think that the agreement would threaten the national security in these ports. Would the request to the UAE to distance itself from the Arab boycott against Israel be a precondition for approval of the Ports management agreement?

As discussed in the article, the main issue is to assess the potential risk to national security that the deal with Dubai Port World poses. Since the controversy is going on between the US government, then the issue that Dubai World Ports is facing is related to its non- market environment.

The deal with Dubai Ports World has been associated with different interest groups. For example, the groups who are with the agreement in United States, Hilary Clinton who is leading a campaign against the deal, Ofer, the chairman of Zim Integrated Shipping Services who was supporting the agreement and Dubai Ports World.

The American government was concerned about the national security. The information that they had is that Dubai Ports World was controlled by Dubai’s government which is part of the Middle East, and for U.S, it is all about terrorism.
On the other hand, the information that Dubai World Ports had is that Dubai is a U.S ally and they have many relations between the United States. Also, as United States has monetary bases in UAE, they should not have concerns about their national security if Dubai World Ports have control on their ports in the United States.

The agreement with Dubai Ports World is valuable. Such a business between UAE and United States would give Dubai a good opportunity to expand in different countries and to be well known by others especially in the United States.

As illustrated in the article, Bush administration has now called on the UAE to distance itself from the Arab boycott against Israel. So in my opinion, things are not only a matter of national security to the United States, but also a matter of politics.