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Senate hearing spotlights Panama Canal risks: auctioned transit slots, Chinese-linked port concessions and treaty questions
Summary
Federal regulators, a maritime-industry leader and a legal scholar told the Senate Commerce Committee that drought-driven slot auctions, rising fees and Chinese-linked port concessions have strained the Panama Canal and raised questions about treaty neutrality and U.S. policy responses.
WASHINGTON — Federal Maritime Commission officials, shipping-industry executives and an international-law professor told the Senate Commerce Committee that the Panama Canal’s recent operational changes and growing Chinese-linked investments pose urgent commercial and legal problems for the United States.
Chairman Luis Sola of the Federal Maritime Commission described drought-driven operational shifts last year that forced transit restrictions and the auctioning of transit slots, saying the canal’s resilience and the independent role of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) are now matters of close U.S. scrutiny. “The Panama Canal is vital to our economy with over 75% of its traffic bound for our ports,” Sola said in his opening remarks.
Commissioner Daniel Maffei, who accompanied Sola on a July 2024 fact‑finding trip to Panama, told senators that the canal used auction procedures during the 2023 low‑water period and that the resulting market allocation produced significant complaints from shippers. “We got a lot of complaints from LNG carriers that paid $4,000,000 to go through,” Maffei said, adding that auction revenue had increased substantially and…
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