Senator introduces legislation to block CNOOC bid

US Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, said Friday that he would introduce legislation that would bar the sale of Unocal to CNOOC of China as being contrary to the interests of national security.

The US House of Representatives has already approved similar legislation. Besides his national security concerns, Mr. Dorgan also cited what he saw as an unequal playing field for the purchase by the government-owned Chinese company, saying that if an American company wanted to purchase a similar company in China, the deal just “wouldn’t happen.”

Mr. Dorgan insisted that his proposal was not anti-China or anti-trade with China. Not all US politicians, however, see a need for legislation on the issue. On Wednesday, Thad Cochran, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that he was opposed to legislation to block the Unocal-CNOOC deal because the Bush administration has the power to stop the deal if it concludes that it is against the best interests of the United States.

If Unilocal accepts the CNOOC bid, the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, part of the Treasury Department, would have to review the deal on economic as well as security grounds before it could be concluded.