Trump demands Panama lower transit fees or return canal to US

Gregory Korte, Bloomberg News on Dec 21, 2024

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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the Panama Canal is charging “exorbitant prices and rates of passage” on U.S. naval and merchant ships, and he demanded that fees be lowered or else Panama should return the canal to the U.S.

“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop.”

The U.S. is the canal’s biggest customer, responsible for about three-quarters of the cargo transiting through each year. A prolonged drought, however, has hampered the canal’s ability to move ships between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard said last week that the resulting disruptions contributed to the supply-chain pressures that have boosted inflation.

The Panama Canal Authority said Friday that the canal contributed $2.47 billion to Panama’s treasury in fiscal 2024, the second consecutive annual decline.

The U.S. completed the 51-mile (82-kilometer) canal through the Central American isthmus in 1914, but ceded it back to Panama in 1999 under a treaty signed by former President Jimmy Carter in 1977 — a move that Trump called foolish.

Trump suggested that the canal was in danger of falling into the wrong hands, saying the canal isn’t China’s to manage. China is its second-biggest customer. A Chinese company based in Hong Kong controls two of the five ports adjacent to the canal, one on each side.

“It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama,” Trump said. “If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question. To the Officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly!”

The Panamanian embassy in Washington didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

(Josh Wingrove contributed to this report.)