'No exceptions' for commercial US ships passing through the Panama Canal, chief says in response to Trump
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- The Panama Canal Authority chief said giving preferential treatment to one country's ships would lead to "chaos."
- Ricaurte Vásquez Morales told The Wall Street Journal: "Rules are rules — and there are no exceptions."
- Trump has accused the canal authority of charging "exorbitant" fees to US ships.
Giving US ships preferential rates to navigate the Panama Canal would "lead to chaos," the head of the canal authority said.
"Rules are rules — and there are no exceptions," Ricaurte Vásquez Morales told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
"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."
In a news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump demanded that US vessels be given preferential treatment.
He also accused the authority of overcharging US ships and of separately seeking funding from the US to repair the waterway. Vásquez Morales denied both those claims, telling the Journal that the authority funds maintenance from the fees it charges and that Panama hadn't requested funding from the US for improvements.
Ships are charged between $300,000 and $1 million depending on their size and type to pass through the canal.
Those charges "apply to all ships from around the world and there are no exceptions," Vásquez Morales told the Journal.
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of retaking control of the canal, calling the fees "exorbitant" and a "rip-off."
"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US," he said on Truth Social in December.
At Tuesday's news conference, Trump also downplayed Panama's control of the canal and refused to rule out using military force to retake control of the trade route, expanding on a threat he made last month.
"China's basically taken it over. China's at both ends of the Panama Canal. China's running the Panama Canal," the president-elect said.
Vásquez Morales told the Journal: "China has no involvement whatsoever in our operations."
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In response to Trump's comments, Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha said on Tuesday that only Panamanians operated the canal, adding: "Our canal's sovereignty is not negotiable and is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest."
Trump has also refused to rule out using military force to take control of Greenland, which he said the US needed for "national security purposes."
The 51-mile Panama Canal was officially opened in 1914, creating a new trade route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The US transferred control to the state-owned Panama Canal Authority in 1999 in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, initiated in 1977 by the Carter administration.
Under the treaty, the US has the right to defend the canal from any change to its neutrality.