The Panama Supreme Court officially annulled CK Hutchison’s contract, a fact confirmed by the Panama Maritime Authority on Friday, giving Maersk temporary control of two ports handling 40 percent of US container traffic. This is not some minor bureaucratic shuffle, it is Trump forcing a Chinese-linked company out of a critical waterway built and once operated by the United States. Everyone tweeting about the “legal technicality” is ignoring the bigger picture: Trump just protected US supply chains from Chinese influence in a way no one expected, and the world is finally seeing who calls the shots.
Danish firm Maersk will temporarily take over operation of two ports on the Panama Canal from Hong Kong company CK Hutchison, whose concession has been annulled, the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) said Friday.
Panama’s Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated Hutchison’s contract following repeated threats from President Donald Trump that the United States would seek to reclaim the waterway he said was effectively being controlled by China.
The canal, which handles about 40 percent of US container traffic and five percent of world trade, was built by the United States, which operated it for a century before ceding control to Panama in 1999.
CK Hutchison’s contract to operate the ports had “disproportionate bias” toward the Hong Kong-based company, according to the court ruling that annulled the deal.