One more provocation for Donald Trump. The American president-elect attacked, this Saturday, December 21, the rights of passage, according to him “ridiculous”, to which American ships using the Panama Canal are subject, and threatened to demand the resumption of control of this shipping route through the United States.
Donald Trump has suggested that China has growing influence over the canal, a key shipping route for U.S. businesses and interests that ship goods through it between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
“Our navy and commerce are being treated particularly unfairly […] The rights (of passage) that Panama charges are ridiculous,” declared on his network Truth Social the Republican, who must succeed Democrat Joe Biden on January 20. “This total ‘scam’ of our country will stop immediately,” he promised.
5% of global maritime traffic
Control of the Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was fully returned to the Central American country in 1999, under an agreement signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1977. “It was only “It’s up to Panama to manage it, not China or anyone else,” the billionaire wrote. “We would NEVER allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
If Panama is unable to guarantee “the safe, efficient and reliable operation” of this sea route, “we will then demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” declared Donald Trump . Panamanian authorities did not immediately react to the publication of the future American president.
According to estimates, some 5% of global maritime traffic passes through the canal, which allows ships traveling especially between Asia and the east coast of the United States to avoid a long and perilous detour through the southern end of the South America. In October, the Panama Canal Authority announced that it had recorded a turnover of nearly five billion dollars (4.8 billion euros) during the past fiscal year.