ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS KILL THE ECONOMY...:

South Florida two-way trade increases nearly 12%: Big ticket items and the rising price of imported fuel helped lift South Florida's two-way trade to almost $66 billion in 2005. (JANE BUSSEY, 3/14/06, MiamiHerald.com)

International shipments through South Florida rose by almost 12 percent in 2005, spurred on by surging demand for big ticket items in South America and the rising price of imported fuel, according to a report printed in WorldCity magazine. [...]

The total international shipments both in and out of South Florida ports reached $65.9 billion, according to Commerce Department numbers that are analyzed by WorldCity. That figure was a historic high, although the South Florida Customs District, which extends from Fort Pierce to Key West, has slipped from the 12th largest district to the 13th largest in the past two years.

According to WorldCity, Brazil and Venezuela held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in terms of two-way shipments, including almost $9 billion in two-way trade for Brazil and $4.3 billion for Venezuela.

If WMD enters the country on a cargo ship it will most likely come from our declared enemy in Venezuela, not an ally like Dubai that runs the best ports in the world.

MORE:
New York's Port, Beyond Dubai (Mark Berkey-Gerard and Pat Arnow, 13 Mar 2006, Gotham Gazette)

For many New Yorkers who make their living from the city’s harbor, the high-pitched, month-long debate over the so-called Arab takeover of the port was beyond baffling.

Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the United Arab Emirates, was going to operate only one facility in New York -- a port terminal that handles just cruise ships, not cargo. (It would also have shared control of another terminal in New Jersey.) But there are seven other port facilities in New York Harbor, and the company would have had nothing to do with them.

Faced with ever-increasing opposition in Congress fueled by public opinion, DPW announced that it was dropping the port deal, and would "transfer" the lease to an American company. But even if the deal had gone through, Dubai -- despite what politicians and columnists said over and over again -- would not have “owned,” “controlled” or “taken over” the ports. The port is owned by the taxpayers and controlled by state and local governments. The lease that DPW had purchased from a British company was simply to manage the facilities.

“It’s not like foreigners are just coming in and doing their own thing,” said Captain Timothy Ferrie, a ship pilot and president of the Maritime Society of New York City. “There’s American involvement every step of the way.”

Those who know the waterfront best also point out that foreign companies –- even some with close ties to governments that the U.S. considers dangerous –- have been operating on the waterways for years. A high-ranking official in the Communist Party in China is in charge of a company that for the past ten years has managed a facility on Staten Island that not only handles cargo ships, but also deploys military equipment for the U.S. Army.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 14, 2006 10:57 AM