U.S. President Donald Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill are working to translate his recent complaints about the Panama Canal into legislative action.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri), an early supporter of Trump’s musings about seizing the strategic waterway, on Thursday introduced a resolution “calling on the government of Panama” to cut its political and economic ties with China and Chinese businesses.
The nonbinding resolution, co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Roger Marshall (Kansas), Katie Boyd Britt (Alabama) and Pete Ricketts (Nebraska), won’t compel any action, but Schmitt said he hopes it sends a signal to Panama, and to Trump, that the Republican-controlled Congress is ready to act on his foreign policy ambitions.
“This is an opportunity, I think, for Panama to do the right thing,” Schmitt told the Washington Post. “They’ve now heard what President Trump has to say, and I hope they hear what the United States Senate has to say.”
Trump complained at a December political rally about what he said were unfair tolls charged by Panama for passage of U.S. ships through the canal, remarks that in the weeks since have evolved into a rallying cry to reassert colonial-era control over a foreign partner state as part of Washington’s ongoing global power competition with China.
Panama’s embassy in Washington could not immediately be reached for comment. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said in a statement after Trump’s December remarks that “every square metre of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belong to PANAMA, and will continue to be.
“The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable,” he wrote in the statement, which is posted on the embassy’s website and was submitted to the United Nations. Asked Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, whether he was concerned about a Trump takeover of the canal, Mulino said, “Be serious.”
Trump used his inaugural address Monday to reiterate that president Jimmy Carter was “foolish” to hand control of the Panama Canal to Panama under treaties that guarantee perpetual neutrality and U.S. and international access to the vital shipping lane, through which tens of thousands of ships pass annually.
Trump also reiterated a claim that it is China, not Panama, that now controls the canal. Earlier this month, he left open the possibility that the U.S. might retake the waterway by force.
“Panama’s promise to us has been broken,” Trump said in his inaugural address. “The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way. And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal.”
Hutchison Port Holdings, a Chinese company, has had a lease since 1997 to operate container facilities at ports on each end of the canal but has no control over the operation of the waterway, which is administered by the independent Panama Canal Authority. Fees, set and regularly reviewed by the authority, are based on size and weight of vessels and are openly published and cannot discriminate. Tolls have increased across the board in recent years as a severe drought in the region lowered water levels, causing passage delays.
Schmitt this week echoed Trump’s claim that Panama has violated the treaties, but the resolution stops short of the assertion. It says instead that the involvement of Chinese state-owned enterprises and affiliated companies in canal development, construction and management “calls into question” the ability of Panama and the U.S. “to defend the canal’s neutrality and ensure its operational security.”
The Panama Canal is one of dozens of places around the world that lawmakers and U.S. officials have pointed to in recent years as examples of Beijing’s growing competitive influence, often waged through its Belt and Road Initiative to develop critical infrastructure in poorer countries, and through alleged “grey zone” tactics used to camouflage military expansion or operations under the guise of commercial activity.
While there is no evidence of Chinese military activity in areas where the Chinese companies operate in Latin America, U.S. policymakers have wrestled with the challenge posed by China’s dominance of some critical supply chains and infrastructure as Beijing has made economic and political inroads across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
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Panama has long been a centre of U.S. and international banking, with close relations with Washington, although it severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2017, establishing relations with Beijing during Trump’s first term and joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Nearly two dozen Latin American and Caribbean countries have overcome U.S. objections and done the same.
The Senate resolution, which echoes Trump’s references to the money the U.S. spent to build the canal at the beginning of the 20th century, calls on Panama to “expel all officials from the People’s Republic of China and representatives of Chinese state-affiliated entities operating within Panamanian ports and other critical infrastructure projects.” It urges the U.S. government to “leverage” the provisions of its treaty agreements with Panama to act “decisively to counter undue foreign influence.”
It also calls on the U.S. government to step up its own competitive offers to counter China’s, including through “significant United States investments to modernize Panama’s canal infrastructure and provide alternatives to Chinese-funded projects.”
Another Republican lawmaker, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-South Dakota), earlier this month introduced a bill in the House to authorize the president to enter negotiations to acquire the canal from Panama.
“I think we’ve been distracted for far too long,” Schmitt said in an interview, referring to U.S. national security priorities. Trump, he said, is targeting an important issue and bringing America “back to a place where we’re taking care of our core national interests, and understanding that China is our chief adversary, and the 21st century is going to be defined by who wins this competition.”