Panama Canal Authority head Ricaurte Vasquez Morales has denied US President-elect Donald Trump’s accusations that the canal is allegedly managed by China, while US ships face higher tariffs.
“The accusations that China is running the Canal are unfounded. China has no involvement whatsoever in our operations. Rules are rules and there are no exceptions. We cannot discriminate for the Chinese, or the Americans, or anyone else. This will violate the neutrality treaty, international law and it will lead to chaos,” Vasquez Morales told The Wall Street Journal newspaper on Wednesday.
The average cost of crossing the canal for ships is about $750,000, but it can range from $300,000 to $1 million, the report said.
“They [tariffs] apply to all ships from around the world and there are no exceptions,” Vasquez Morales added.
In addition, he reportedly noted that Panama had not requested funds from the United States to modernize the canal, since the authorities are financing the repairs from their own revenues.
Trump said on December 22 that he would demand the rapid return of the Panama Canal to American ownership due to high fees for passage through it. The politician emphasized that the Panama Canal was critically important for US trade, as well as for the rapid deployment of US naval forces in the Atlantic and the Pacific.
