State lawmakers join chorus to delay port deal

Washington state lawmakers called Wednesday for delaying a business deal that would give a company owned by the United Arab Emirates control of parts of six U.S. ports, as well as a portion of the port in Vancouver, B.C.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she wanted to put the port acquisition "on hold" until she was satisfied it didn't pose a security threat.

"I want the administration to explain this deal, and I wanted it halted until we're informed," Murray said. If not satisfied, she said, she would try to stop it.

Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., joined other congressional Republicans opposing the U.S.-approved deal. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., also raised concerns about the purchase, in which Dubai Ports World is acquiring U.S. port operations from a British company, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation, also known as P&O.

At a news conference, Murray and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, used the controversy to promote a bill they co-authored to beef up security at ports.

Among other things, the bill would empower the Department of Homeland Security to create new regulations for port security and an office to coordinate security policy.

Murray is a member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security. Collins is chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Reichert said he supports a separate bill that would delay the port deal, re-investigate it and, if necessary, deny it.

"I believe you have to have all the facts — and we don't have them," said Reichert, chairman of the House Emergency Preparedness subcommittee on homeland security.

Reichert said he wants to know whether Dubai Ports World would handle the hiring of port security personnel, and whether the company has complied with security regulations at other ports it manages outside Dubai.

He also noted the high-level government committee that approved the port deal was the subject of a critical Government Accountability Office report in September. The GAO said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is reluctant to conduct longer investigations because it wants to encourage foreign investment, and that it receives too little congressional oversight.

Ports have limited power to block such sales. For one thing, most ports don't sell dockland. Instead, they provide land and equipment under long-term leases to companies that operate cargo terminals at the port.

Those leases are the assets transferred in a sale, not title to property.

The leases usually allow ports to refuse a new tenant if a company is sold. But the leases also usually say that transfers "will not be unreasonably withheld," said Mark Knudsen, deputy managing director of seaport operations at the Port of Seattle.

A company on shaky financial footing could be reasonably refused. But most ports probably could not refuse a large global port operator such as Dubai Ports World only because it is owned by a foreign government, he said.

Indeed, the board of the Vancouver Port Authority already has approved transferring the lease of P&O Ports Canada to Dubai Ports World. P&O Ports Canada operates one of three terminals at the British Columbia port.

If Dubai Ports World were to bid for one of the Seattle terminals, "we would question it, we'd make sure we had done our due diligence to make sure they could live up to the terms of the lease," Knudsen said. "But beyond that there's not much more we could do."

Alwyn Scott, 206-464-3329, or ascott@seattletimes.com

Alicia Mundy, 202-662-7457, or amundy@seattletimes.com