I believe a deal where the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would be allowed to control the United States Port operations would be a terrible idea. The most obvious reason for this is security of the United States. The security threat has the obvious problems that go along with it. However, as a business I would be concerning myself with the ability to survive a shutdown of some/all the ports.
A company would need to assume that one or more ports would shut down during the time the UAE had control over the ports. With this being a concern businesses would have to maintain a set of reserves that could be used in the event of a port shutdown. Not all products have the ability to be kept long term. This would cause an increase in waste for businesses. As products are being wasted companies will need to recoup this cost. This will raise costs of goods for United States consumers. When costs increase for consumers fewer products is purchased because there isn’t as much money to go around. If revenue/profits are smaller for companies this could lead to job cuts or businesses closing. The ripple effect may be a bit extreme but I believe it’s a solid reason for keeping the ports with the current London-based controller.