Hutchison pleads for greater U.S. trust

The Bush administration offered a $6 million, one-year, no-bid contract to Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa to install and operate nuclear radiation detection equipment in the port of Freeport in the Bahamas. All U.S.-bound container-carrying ships will be subjected to the monitoring at the port. There is one point about the deal which irks members of Congress and security experts: The Bahamian government insisted that U.S. customs agents will not be present at the port to monitor and observe the detection operations. The administration initially accepted this stipulation, but in the face of mounting opposition in Congress, it is now renegotiating the deal.

This is not sitting well with Hutchison management. The United States requires the support of major foreign port operators to ensure security, and politicians risk undermining goodwill overseas by opposing foreign involvement in U.S. ports, according to John Meredith, group managing director of Hutchison Port Holdings. In an interview with the Financial Times, Meredith said: “They are effectively saying ‘We don’t want you to be here, we don’t trust you.’”

Referring to Dubai Ports World’s failed takeover of several U.S. port operations formerly run by London-based P&O, Meredith said the United States needs the cooperation of major operators like Hutchison Port, DP World, and Singapore’s PSA International to ensure the safety of U.S.-bound ships and cargo. “The U.S. is relying on the goodwill of Dubai Ports and other port operators to do (overseas security checks) for them,” Meredith said.

The United States has been preoccupied with security in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and Hutchison has recently demonstrated cargo screening systems developed by San Diego, California-based SAIC to a number of prominent U.S. visitors, including Senators Charles Schumer (D-New York) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and DHS secretary Michael Chertoff. “Our problem has been trying to get people to realize (the technology) is already there,” Meredith said.

Hutchison Port has no port investments in the U.S., but has set up a Washington, D.C. office “dedicated to trying to educate the administration, the trade and the Congress (about port security issues) its been quite a long, hard struggle really.”