U.S. companies regularly take over large foreign concerns without much fuss. When a foreign corporation tries to take control of a big U.S. firm, however, Washington immediately starts sounding the alarm. That was the cynical conclusion drawn by many Europeans last week from the U.S. Justice Department's announcement that it would sue to prevent British Petroleum from acquiring control of Standard Oil (Ohio). In fact, much to the chagrin of the State Department, Justice lawyers appeared to be mechanically applying their strict interpretation of antitrust law to what they saw as just...
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