President-elect Donald Trump returns to thunder to defend what, in his opinion, are the interests of the United States. This time the tycoon targeted the Panama Canal managed by the Panamanian authorities but built at the time by Washington.
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At the beginning of the last century the USA helped Panama gain independence from Colombia. At the same time, in 1904, they started the construction of the Canal which was inaugurated 10 years later, in 1914. An artery that remains vital even after more than a century. The confirmation comes from the numbers: over 10 thousand boats have crossed the strip between the two Americas, carrying over 423 million tons of goods. In fact, Panama has had control and ownership of the Canal since 1999, but the USA is in first place among customers, followed closely by Chinese ships. And it is precisely the possible Chinese influences that have given Trump the pretext to claim preferential tariffs for the USA or the return of control of the Canal to Washington. In fact, near the ship entry area there is a branch of CK Hutchison Holdings, based in Hong Kong which manages two ports.
But Trump's claims also arise from events that concern him closely. The Trump Organization has been involved in a legal battle for some time which sees it accused of tax evasion with Panama. It all started over 5 years ago when the owners of a hotel in Panama accused Trump Panama Hotel Management and Trump International Hotels Management of not having paid some tax debts and of not having correctly declared the number of employees of the structure. The investigations revealed other irregularities which led to an extension of the dispute which is currently still open.
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In the past the authorities had been forced to take restrictive decisions due to the lack of water which blocked transit
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The Panama Canal has been a troubled project since its inception but it revolutionized the world of transport by allowing ships sailing the ocean to travel 81 kilometers to pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and avoid the over 13 thousand kilometers of travel necessary to circumnavigate South America. Today, after 110 years, President-elect Donald Trump threatened to regain control of the Canal because the tariffs imposed on Washington would be too high and other increases are expected to begin next year. The response from his colleague, President Josè Raul Mulino, was not long in coming. “Every square meter of the Panama Canal – he declared – and the adjacent areas are part of Panama and will continue to be so”.
In reality, prices have increased due to various factors, some unrelated to the will of the two nations. The first would concern global warming which, by lowering the water level, has led to a slowdown in crossing operations and, therefore, to an increase in waiting times. November last year was the driest month since 1959. That's because the crossing system relies on a series of locks and requires around 200 million liters of fresh water.
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All this has brought with it an increase in costs and the creation of an extra tariff that ensures a sort of “right of precedence”. At the same time, also by virtue of the increases in costs, the number of ships that cross the strait every day have also decreased: from 36 of previous years, we moved to 10 pm at the end of 2023. The equivalent of 6% of world maritime trade still passes through the Panama Canal.
The first projects on a possible connection between the two sides of the ocean were already made by the first Spanish colonizers around 1530 and envisaged the cutting of the isthmus as would subsequently be done by the Americans just under 400 years later . The first works, however, were carried out by the French in 1878 even if they did not last long since the companies involved soon filed for bankruptcy in 1899. Following the independence of Panama, which was also supported by the USA, a treaty was signed in 1903 which granted the United States the rights to work and administer the Canal indefinitely in exchange for a payment of $10 million and a royalty income of $250,000. Panama, however, only came into possession of the strait in 1977 thanks to a treaty between the parties signed by the then US president Jimmy Carter and the Panamanian military leader Omar Torrijos which sanctioned, among other things, the neutrality of the Canal.
FOTO: shutterstock
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