The Panama Canal Authority denied the U.S. State Department’s claim earlier this week that American ships would no longer be charged to transit the waterway.
On Wednesday, the official X account for the Department of State claimed that “U.S. government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the U.S. government millions of dollars a year.”
Later that evening, the Panama Canal Authority, a government agency, responded that it is “empowered to set tolls for vessels transiting the canal” and has “not made any adjustments to these fees,” per Forbes.
President Trump has insisted that the world-famous waterway be returned to U.S. control if Panama does not change how the canal is managed.
“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the U.S. This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop…” wrote Trump on Truth Social in December.
In addition to the fees, Trump has previously called out what he sees as China’s unacceptable growing level of influence and control of the Panama Canal.
“When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away, for One Dollar, during his term in Office, it was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” Trump wrote in the same Truth Social post in December.
Earlier this week, Trump’s pressure did begin to pay off, with Panama appearing to distance itself from China, committing to forgo renewal of an agreement involving China’s foreign investment program. The news broke following U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s meeting with Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino and other officials on Sunday.
“My hope ultimately is that we can get back to a point where that canal is what it was meant to be, which is a place for the United States and Panama working in partnership … and that no foreign power through their companies or any other means has the ability to use it against us in a time of conflict and impede travel through it, because it would be devastating,” Rubio recently told Fox News.