A Battle for the Canal

4/8/2026

This is a follow-up to my December blog about the Panama Canal. I just attended the March 27th symposium. The symposium’s speakers talked all about America’s competition with China for influence in Latin America. President Trump’s State of the Union address quote that’s at the end of that December blog,  “But we didn’t give it to China and we are taking it back”, referring to the Panama Canal, now makes a lot more sense.

I looked back and on April 15, 2025, an online publication by the International Institute for Strategic Studies reported that the United States and China were competing for control of the two main ports at either end of the Panama Canal, that they are operated by Panama Ports Company, which is a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings – a Hong Kong-based conglomerate with strong ties to Beijing – which owns a 90% stake in Panama Ports Company (Translation: President Trump must believe that China has control over the Panama Canal through a Chinese/Hong Kong based company, and because of this influence in this critical Latin American trade point, it is something President Trump wanted to “take back”.)

But in the months that followed President Trump’s speech, apparently, CK Hutchison was digging in and not willing to sell these Panama Canal assets to BlackRock (Thought: perhaps due to pressure from the Chinese government?)  

I looked some more. There was a court case. Last month, in February 2026, the Panama Supreme Court issued a ruling that the Panama Ports Company had a provision in its contract which was ruled unconstitutional in Panama. This Court ruling would apparently give way to Panama’s ability to bid and award the right to run the ports to another entity (which will presumably be the American company, BlackRock).

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said its maritime authority would work with CK Hutchison’s subsidiary to ensure continuing operations at the port after the ruling and give over operations to a local subsidiary of a Danish logistics company, A.P. Moller-Maersk, in a transitional phase until a new operator’s bid was awarded.

But now, there’s another lawsuit, and CK Hutchison has brought an arbitration (a form of lawsuit) against Maersk. All of this is stalling what is happening with any transition of ownership of the key ports for the Panama Canal.

And apparently, because of all of this, US News reported on March 3, 2026 that BlackRock is now saying it will buy other assets from CK Hutchison without the two ports in the Panama Canal.

It’s all making more sense, though taking back the Panama Canal has proven harder than it first was presented to be by President Trump.