Reuters Story Admits Free Trade is Behind UAE Port Scandal

A little-noticed Reuters story last week publicly acknowledges that the Bush administration's stubbornness in backing the UAE port deal is motivated by free trade orthodoxy.

Here are the key excerpts:

"U.S. business leaders voiced worry on Wednesday that a congressional uproar over an Arab company's takeover of operations at key U.S. ports could slow proposed free trade pacts in the Middle East, particularly with the United Arab Emirates, where the company is based... The United States launched talks with the UAE in March 2005 as part of a larger push to create a free trade zone throughout the Middle East by 2013. U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman told Congress last week he hoped to finish the pact with the UAE this year. The United States already has such deals with Morocco, Jordan, Israel and Bahrain and has concluded another with Oman that is expected to go before Congress this year."

This is exactly what I wrote well-before this Reuters story appeared - and the fact that the corporate media still refuses to acknowledge this basic fact shows just how deeply embedded free trade orthodoxy is in our media/political system.

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