On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump threatened to retake control over the Panama Canal, accusing Panama of excessive passage fees, and drawing ire from the Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino.
In a speech in front of his supporters in Arizona, Trump also said that he would not let the canal fall into the wrong hands, citing potential Chinese influence on the canal.
At AmericaFest, an annual event organized by an allied conservative group Turning Point, Trump said that the U.S. was being ripped off by the fees like any other countries that has ripped off the U.S.
Trump’s remarks were an example of the U.S. president saying that he could use his power to pressure a sovereign country into giving a concession. The threat also underlines Trump’s foreign policy, which favors bellicose rhetoric and the use of threats when dealing with counterparts, both rivals and allies.
On Sunday, President Mulino of Panama released a recorded message, saying that Panama’s sovereignty is not negotiable and that China has no influence in the canal’s administration. The president also defended the passage fees rate, saying that it has been made with a thorough consideration.
While China may not have any influence in the canal, a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, a Hong Kong-based company, operates two ports near both the Caribbean and Pacific entrances of the canal.
The United States largely built and operated the canal and administered the surrounding territory since its completion in 1914. The U.S. then handed over control of the passage and its surrounding territory to Panama in 1999 after a decade of joint administration.
The passage accounted for 2.5% of global shipping and is crucial to the U.S. imports of cars and other consumer products from Asia, and the major export artery for U.S. commodities like liquefied natural gas.
It remains unclear how Trump would regain the canal, as he would have no support under international law.
In the past, Trump has expressed his desire for territorial expansion, like when he talked about turning Canada into a U.S. state, or when he tried to purchase Greenland from Denmark, which the Danish government refused before any talk could be made.
