The president-elect Donald Trump he would like the Panama Canal to return under the control of the United States because he believes that the tariffs imposed for the use of the canal are too high given that it was built by the Americans.
But why is it so important? Panama Canal? First of all there is an economic motivation. The artificial canal connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and saves 13 thousand kilometers of navigation to go around South America. The Canal, which cuts Panama in two, is 81 kilometers long and can be traveled in 8-12 hours. According to data updated to September 30, almost 10 thousand ships passed through in 2024, for a total of 423 million tons of goods including food, minerals and industrial products. More than 40% of the products exchanged between northeast Asia and the east coast of the United States passed through the Panama Canal and the USA is the largest customer, with three-quarters of the total cargo passing through here during the year. In second position we find China. The United Statesin 1904, after having helped Panama gain independence from Colombia, they started construction of the Canal which was inaugurated ten years later, thus revolutionizing maritime transport throughout the world. Today the owner of the Canal is the government of Panama which has controlled its administration since 1999. The control by the Americans in the 1960s also gave rise to student protests which resulted in clashes.
There is currently an ongoing legal battle involving the Trump Organization, the company owned by the president-elect and his family, accused of tax evasion in Panama. In June 2019, in fact, the owners of a hotel Panama managed by a company in the Trump galaxy accused two companies, Trump Panama Hotel Management and Trump International Hotels Management, of failing to pay taxes on profits. Orestes Fintiklis, owner of the Ithaca Capital Partners company, accused Trump of not having paid 12.5% of the millions of dollars he earned from the hotel. But not only that. Trump's company was accused of making a mistake in reporting the number of employees it hired to avoid paying contributions. Fintiklis and his company, essentially, were forced to pay the taxes that Trump allegedly evaded. The lawsuit is still ongoing. According to some analysts, Trump would have asked for control of the Panama Canal to pass to the US as a sort of retaliation against the Panamanian government, guilty of having raised its limits too much. rates. Rates that would have increased due to global warming and the lowering of water levels, causing a reduction in the number of ships transiting daily from the usual 36 to 22. This year, in September, transits dropped by a third, while new ones increases are expected from January 1, 2025.
President Josè Raul Mulino responded harshly to Trump by stating that tariffs will not be lowered and that “every square meter of the Panama Canal – he added – and the adjacent areas are part of Panama and will continue to be so”.
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