Panama Denies Us Claim That Government Ships Get Free Canal Passage

Y’all might have to turn the schooner around and take the Magellan route to save a few bucks. Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino denied a statement released this week by the US State Department that Panama had agreed to let US government ships travel the Panama Canal for free.

On Wednesday evening, the State Department’s official X account posted that the free passage would save the US government “millions of dollars a year.” Mulino replied yesterday that the statement was “based on a falsity.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio later clarified that he “expects” Panama to remove the fee.

The back-and-forth comes just a few days after Rubio took his first trip as secretary of state to Panama to visit the canal, where he and Panamanian officials reportedly discussed looking into free passage for US Navy vessels, which make up about 0.5% of the total number of ships that sail through each year. Canal officials warned that the potential change could violate the original 1977 treaty—which handed control of the canal to Panama—because of a clause that requires equal treatment of all canal users.

Big picture: The negotiations with Panama follow Trump’s promise on the campaign trail to take back the canal. The president has argued that China has more control over the canal than it should, which Mulino also denied.—MM