Trump Targets Panama Canal in Strategic Shift

President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to reassert U.S. control over the Panama Canal could shift from a rules-based neo-liberal international order into a more robustly assertive foreign policy.

Trump has accused Panama of charging exorbitant rates to use the passage and warned against Chinese control over the canal, saying he would not let it fall into “the wrong hands.” Ports at both ends of the canal are managed by a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, and fears have been raised that in the event of a conflict with Beijing, access to U.S. military and civilian shipping could be restricted.

The U.S. largely built the canal and took control of the Panama Canal Zone in after backing Panamanian independence from Colombia in 1903. The U.S. ceded control back to Panama in 1999. It was opened in 1914 and is critical to U.S. imports and exports, handling about 2.5% of global maritime trade.

After offering to buy the autonomous territory of Greenland from Denmark in 2019 - a move that was rebuffed by Danish authorities before any discussions took place - Trump has also said recently that “the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” for U.S. security.