Panama president hits back at Trump over canal takeover threat 

Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, has rejected US President-elect Donald Trump’s comments that his new administration could move to take back control of the Panama Canal after accusing the country of charging excessive rates on US ships.

Speaking at his post-election rally in Arizona over the weekend, Trump complained that canal authorities are collecting unreasonable fees from ships that pass through one of the vital shipping waterways linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and that if rates are not lowered, the US would demand the canal be returned “in full, quickly and without question”.

“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair,” Trump told his supporters in Arizona on Sunday. “This complete rip-off of our country will immediately stop,” he said, referring to when he takes office next month.

His comments drew a swift condemnation from Mulino, who said that every square metre of the canal and surrounding area belong to his country and that Panama’s sovereignty and independence were non-negotiable.

“Rates are not a whim,” Mulino noted. “They are established publicly and in an open hearing, taking into account market conditions, international competition, operating costs and the maintenance and modernisation needs of the interoceanic route.”

Trump also hinted at China’s growing influence around the canal.

“It was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform over the weekend. “We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!”

Mulino responded in a statement that the canal is not under direct or indirect control, “neither by China, nor by the European community, nor by the United States, nor by any other power”.

The US largely built the canal in the 1900s and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. Washington handed control of the waterway to Panama in 1999 under a treaty signed in 1977 under President Jimmy Carter after a period of joint administration.

An estimated 2.5% of global seaborne trade sails through the artificial 82-km waterway in an average year. The shortcut dramatically reduces the time for ships to travel between the two oceans, enabling them to avoid the route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan. It helps move roughly $270bn worth of cargo annually, including about 40% of all US container traffic.