The U.S. President has made restoring U.S. control of the Panama Canal a foreign policy priority
As the saying goes, «an umbrella is needed on a rainy day». U.S. President Donald Trump was presented with his «umbrella» — two ports on either side (the entrance and exit) of the Panama Canal — just one day before his first address as head of state before both chambers of Congress on March 5.
«My administration will take back the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing so. Just today, a major American company announced that it is buying both ports around the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans, not for someone else», Trump told Congress, though he did not name the buyer.
On January 9, 2025, a group of Republican congressmen introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would authorize the White House to negotiate the purchase of the Panama Canal.
The bill, known as the Panama Canal Repurchase Act, authorizes the U.S. president to enter into negotiations with representatives of the Panamanian government to purchase the infrastructure.
Since then, not a week has gone by without Trump criticizing Panama for its most valuable asset — the canal.
An unfounded pretext has also emerged, claiming that the waterway is managed by China. Both China and Panama deny this.
«China has never been involved in the management or operation of the canal, nor has it interfered in its affairs», said Lin Jian, an official spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The Americans dismiss Jian’s comments. According to Trump, the key point is that «the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It is managed by China. We gave it to Panama, not China, and the Panamanians have abused that gift. That decision should never have been made. […] We gave it to Panama and now we are taking it back», a message he repeated at every convenient — and inconvenient — opportunity.
Recall that the United States, which built the canal at the end of the 19th century, officially and legally handed it over to Panama in 1999. Nearly 15,000 ships from all over the world pass through the Panama Canal each year, carrying goods worth about $300 billion. About two-thirds of those ships are headed to or from the U.S. In fiscal year 2024, despite a severe drought, total revenues reached $4.986 billion, according to the Panama Canal Authority.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino accused U.S. President Donald Trump of yet another lie. «President Trump lies again. On behalf of Panama and all Panamanians, I reject this new insult to the truth and to our national dignity», Mulino wrote on the X network.
This did not stop U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio from visiting Panama on an official trip in early February of this year, where he demanded that President Mulino «reduce China’s influence over the canal or the country will face possible retaliation from the United States». Rubio was clearly referring to the Chinese consortium that manages two of the Panama Canal’s five ports.
These five terminals, managed by multinational corporations from the United States, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, are among the largest on the continent, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Two of them — Balboa (on the Pacific side) and Cristóbal (on the Atlantic side) — are managed by a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings, based in Hong Kong.
CK Hutchison is part of the conglomerate founded by Li Ka-shing, one of the five richest men in Hong Kong. The conglomerate includes retail chains, telecommunications networks and energy companies. CK Hutchison has managed the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal since 1997, when Panama granted the company a 25-year concession for these facilities, which was renewed for another 25 years in 2021.
President Trump has taken aim at CK Hutchison. The Li family claimed that they had been subjected to political pressure to force them out of the Panama Canal port business. It is unknown how this confrontation would have ended without the intervention of Wall Street.
An investment group led by BlackRock Inc. — an investment giant with $11.6 trillion in capital (about 40% of U.S. GDP) — manages assets including many seaports, airports and data centers around the world. BlackRock has said it is ready to buy two ports in Panama.
CK Hutchison Holdings soon relented and announced that it would sell all of its shares in Hutchison Port Holdings and Hutchison Port Group Holdings to a consortium in a deal valued at nearly $23 billion, including $5 billion in debt.
A small group of bankers from Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and New York closed the deal in just a few weeks. The consortium, which included BlackRock, Terminal Investment and Global Infrastructure Partners, acquired 90% of the shares of Panama Ports Company and gained control of 43 ports in 23 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australia.
On the same day, the conglomerate’s shares rose 24.7%.
BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink and board member Adebayo Ogunlesi reportedly informed President Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the deal. U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the deal made by U.S. firm BlackRock — it was this deal that was pompously announced to Congress.
Frank Sixt, one of CK Hutchison’s chief executives, said the deal was the result of a «fast, discreet but competitive» process and had nothing to do with politics or reports about the Panama Canal ports. However, insider reports in American and Panamanian media indicate that President Trump exerted strong pressure on Hong Kong’s Hutchison — and that none other than BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink played a decisive role through his personal involvement, according to American commentators.
Larry Fink, known for his ultra-globalist views, once served as Trump’s financial manager and advisor during his first term. «Perhaps he allied himself with Trump to serve the MAGA movement and keep making money», writes the New York Post.
Trump and Fink are, in effect, killing two birds with one stone: making America great again and giving American corporations a chance to profit from the Trump administration’s foreign policy. And ahead, as Trump warns, may lie Greenland and a 51st state…
Panama maintains that it has full control over the canal and that the sale of the two ports to the American company does not mean that the canal will be “returned” to the United States. Panama’s Supreme Court did not approve the CK Hutchison contract to manage the ports, which the local prosecutor’s office called «unconstitutional». The Panamanian government announced that it would request all documents related to the agreement between Hong Kong’s Hutchison and the American consortium.
If, as a result of the investigation, the contract is declared constitutional, «nothing will happen» and the Americans will take over the management of the ports. But if the court declares the contract unconstitutional, the BlackRock purchase will be nullified. In that case, Panamanian analysts say, a third scenario could emerge — in which U.S. forces, under the banner of «America First», could once again land in the Panama Canal Zone.
«These companies [Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison] are not independent. They are a haven for the Chinese government, and they control the entrances and exits of the canal», U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently stated, hinting that if the deal is canceled, both ports at either end of the canal could become a haven for the U.S. government.