&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Trump says US won't let China control Panama Canal; why the waterway matters")
President Donald Trump said the United States should never have handed control of the Panama Canal to Panama, accusing the country of sharply increasing transit fees after the transfer and warning that Washington would not allow China to gain influence over the strategic waterway.
Speaking at the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora on Wednesday (local time), Trump criticised the decision to transfer the canal and said the United States would resist any Chinese attempt to control it.
"The Panama Canal, so we gave it away. The first thing they did, you know what they did? They raised the prices for the ships by four times, and they didn't lose one ship. And then they raised it again twice, and they didn't lose one ship. All they did was make tremendous amounts of money for years and years. How stupid was that?" Trump said.
"And now China's trying to take over the Panama Canal, and we're not going to let that happen, okay? And that was not part of the script because I don't really have a script because this thing doesn't work," he added.
Trump's remarks referred to the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties, under which the United States agreed to transfer control of the Panama Canal. The handover was completed in 1999 after the United States, which built the canal in 1914, transferred full control of the strategic waterway to Panama.
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Why is the Panama Canal important?
The Panama Canal is one of the world's busiest and most strategically important shipping routes. Around 5 per cent of global maritime trade passes through the canal each year, carrying roughly $270 billion worth of cargo. It also handles about 40 per cent of US container traffic.
Stretching about 82 kilometres, or 51 miles, across Panama, the canal links the Caribbean Sea on the Atlantic side with the Pacific Ocean. It runs from Colón through Gatun Lake and the Gaillard Cut before reaching Panama City.
Before the canal was built, ships travelling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans had to sail around South America through the Strait of Magellan or Cape Horn, adding thousands of miles to the journey. The canal dramatically cuts travel time, reducing the distance between New York and San Francisco by about 8,000 miles.
