President Donald Trump repeated his desires to acquire the Panama Canal and rename the Gulf of Mexico in his inaugural address as he was sworn in for his second term. Trump has expressed his views regarding the canal and the Gulf of Mexico earlier. He signalled he was sober about pushing ahead with both those views soon. During his inaugural speech, Trump expressed goals of American territorial growth. While unfurling dreams for space exploration, he gathered the 19th-century expansionist ideology of Manifest Destiny, which enacts that the US is fated to extend territorially.
“We are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,”
he stated.
The government of Panama holds the 82km canal. Panama was given the right to the canal on December 31, 1999. It was made under a 1977 accord signed by former US President Jimmy Carter.
Under the accord, the US government forfeited possession of the canal by the year 2000. The treaty gives the US the power to maintain and manage the canal. Vessels from any nation can cross the canal. The treaty does not have a clause letting the US take over ownership of the canal. The treaty enacts that the costs to transit the canal must be just, appropriate, equitable, and uniform with international regulation.
“The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form. And that includes the United States Navy,”
Trump stated during the inaugural speech.
Drought conditions in Central America impacted the Panama Canal in 2023. Traffic crossing via the waterway has decreased by 29 per cent in the earlier fiscal year. From October 2023 to September 2024, 9,944 ships crossed the canal, corresponded with 14,080 in the year earlier.
According to experts, President Trump could take back the waterway by boosting US investment in it and by supporting the businesses that directly and indirectly manage the canal.
Trump has not determined how he would go around taking the canal, but he has not ruled out the potential usage of military or economic strength for territorial growth. He has also spoken concerning desiring to acquire Canada and Greenland since he has been elected.
As stated by legal experts, “Trump cannot acquire the Panama Canal except through the crime of aggressive war.”
“Unconditional sovereignty was transferred to Panama” by the treaties signed in the 1970s, “with no provision for reversion to the United States,” they said. “Panama is operating the canal in violation of its neutrality and related commitments”. The waterway accounts for an assessed 2.5 per cent of global ocean trade and 40 per cent of all US receptacle traffic.
If the new President takes the Panama Canal, that would be a violation of the UN Charter, the governing paper that has formulated international relations since the Second World War. This is because the canal is the territory of Panama, a sovereign nation.
