Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings asked the Panamanian government to enter negotiations to allow it to continue operating the Panama Canal’s two terminal ports, a company spokesperson said.

Panama’s Supreme Court last month invalidated Hutchison’s contract following repeated threats from President Donald Trump that the United States would seek to reclaim the waterway, which he asserts is controlled by China.

Following that decision, Panama announced that Danish company Maersk would take over operation of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on either side of the canal. CK Hutchison threatened legal action over the move.

“We request that there be a roundtable discussion between CK Hutchison and representatives of the executive branch to seek a reasonable solution,” said Alejandro Kouruklis, spokesperson for the Hutchison subsidiary that operates the ports, said in an interview with Radio Red.

Kouruklis said the company was willing to renegotiate “absolutely everything” in the contract that Panama’s Supreme Court struck down on grounds that it is unconstitutional.

The court said the contract favored the company too heavily, to the detriment of Panama.

Since 1997, Hutchison had managed the ports of Cristobal on the interoceanic canal’s Atlantic side and Balboa on the Pacific side.

The concession was extended for 25 years in 2021.

The canal, which handles about 40 percent of US container traffic and five percent of world trade, was built by the United States, which operated it for a century before ceding control to Panama in 1999.

Panama has always denied Chinese control over the 50-mile (80-kilometer) waterway, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and is used mainly by the United States and China.
Source: AFP