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From The Times
July 15, 2008

Barack Obama, the budding protectionist

David Wighton: Business Editor’s commentary

Barack Obama must have thought he was on pretty safe ground last week when he fielded a question about the future of Anheuser-Busch in its home town of St Louis. This was surely a slam dunk compared with such ticklish subjects as Iran, abortion or wire tapping. “I do think that it’d be shame if Bud is foreign-owned,” he replied confidently.

But Mr Obama was looking pretty foolish yesterday when the brewer’s board recommended the $52 billion offer from Belgium’s InBev. To have imagined that the brewer’s flag-waving was anything more than a bid tactic was naive. And jumping on the protectionist bandwagon was hardly the best preparation for his forthcoming visit to Europe.

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This is the worst possible outcome for Anheuser-busch being bought out by a foreign company, once again the share holders are only thinking of themselves, not giving a thought to the jobs that will be lost in a couple of years as InBev attempt to get some of their billions of dollars back.

R.E. Jones, Wrecsam, Wales

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