Ports acquisition issue

As someone who has seen the CFIUS process first-hand, I agree with Kevin Drum on the ports issue. This isn't a matter of the existing company, the London-based P&O (Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.), being replaced by a Dubai company, Dubai Ports World, it's a matter of acquisition. This will likely legally involve the transfer of the assets to a new corporate entity to replace the existing top-level structure of P&O, with a new board of directors, but if it's like the process I've seen, there may be restrictions on the composition of that board to make sure that U.S. interests are protected. There will probably be few changes in the staff actually performing jobs at the ports, and there will likely be screening requirements for employees as part of the security requirements that the acquirer has agreed to through the CFIUS process. If any of the agreement documents that came out of the CFIUS process are a public record (as was the case when the company I work for was acquired by a Singapore company), we'll be able to see some of the specific requirements that will have to be put in place, which will most likely be greater than the requirements that P&O has today.

Sean Lynch at Catallarchy calls this a win for free trade, which is disputed by The Modulator on the grounds that the acquiring company is owned by a government--the United Arab Emirates. The alternative acquirer, PSA International of Singapore, is also owned by a government (the Republic of Singapore), through Temasek Holdings. It's clearly not "free trade" in the sense of a normal voluntary transaction between two private entities both in light of the government ownership and the whole CFIUS process and mandated agreements imposed by the U.S. government.

UPDATE: Ed Brayton argues against the deal at Dispatches from the Culture Wars, and I've offered some comments there, including this paragraph that I think Sean Lynch would agree with:

I'm not sure I see what the big deal is about P&O being owned by Dubai Ports World being owned by the Dubai government (the Hong Kong of the United Arab Emirates), vs. P&O being owned by PSA International being owned by Temasek Holdings being owned by the Republic of Singapore--apart from a general objection to government-owned businesses. I also don't see a big deal in Haier (Chinese company) making Maytag washing machines, or Lenovo making IBM ThinkPads. It seems to me that the more economic interests that cross national boundaries, the less likely we are to have wars.

UPDATE 2: At least some provisions of the agreement (presumably negotiated as part of the CFIUS process) have come out, and while the DHS described the terms as "unprecedented among maritime companies," they sound lax by comparison to the terms that have been used in such agreements for foreign acquisitions of U.S. telecommunications companies. Apparently the Bush administration is more concerned about the flow of information than the movement of physical materials.