WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of the Treasury John Snow has warned against isolationist policies following the collapse of a deal on foreign management of some U.S. ports.
"It is vital that we avoid taking steps in the name of national security that instead are isolationist, having the effect of choking off vital investments in America," Snow said Tuesday in a speech to the America's Community Bankers Government Affairs Conference.
Snow said the Treasury Department would be working with congressional committees on changes to policies of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. That body vetted the deal in which Dubai Ports World, from the United Arab Emirates, was to have managed six U.S. East Coast ports. The company has since said it will sell those rights to a U.S. company.
Opponents of the original deal questioned security aspects of a U.A.E.-owned company running the ports.
Snow said CFIUS should increase scrutiny of deals involving state-owned companies while preserving the independence of the committee's intelligence and security reviews.
