You may have heard how President Trump wants to take back control of the Panama Canal over concerns that China has far too large of an influence in that area over the 51-mile long waterway system that was built by the U.S. and first opened in 1914.
“I think it’s entirely right that the President be asking some of these hard questions as we look at maintaining and growing and projecting our strength which we must do,” says Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA).
He tells Hoosier Ag Today that China has been pushing for control over the Panama Canal for quite some time.
“Even when I was down there in 2018, the director of the canal system and I were there at the big new Cocolí locks, and he said, ‘Mr. McKinney, you’ll be pleased to know the Chinese have offered to run the canal for us.’ I looked at him with a smile and I said, ‘What was your reply?’ He said, ‘No, no, no—we got the canals. It’s okay. But you got to check out the ports at each end of the canal,’ which is not under their domain. Ninety percent of the births were locked up by China, so the President has a point.”
He adds that the issue goes beyond ensuring the safety of U.S. exports. McKinney says China’s influence over the waterway could become an issue of National Security.
“If it’s a last in line, you get in line and then you go through the canal. What if we have a crisis somewhere in the world and we want to get an aircraft carrier or some other form of ship through? Do we get to cut in line? I think that was an unknown answer at the time,” says McKinney.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed an agreement giving control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government. That transfer of control was officially handed over on December 31, 1999.
According to NBC News, President Trump has ordered military officials to develop options for increasing the U.S. military presence in that area in order “reclaim” the Panama Canal.
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