Q&A: Panama Canal Authority’s Ricaurte Vásquez Morales
An interview looking at Trump’s talk, expansion plans—and why Panama might still be the best shipping option, even if the Arctic melts.
It hasn’t been an easy era to run the Panama Canal. Even before President Donald Trump’s talk of “taking the canal back” for the United States began in December, the key waterway was hit by a severe drought in 2022-24 that slowed traffic, caused fees to spike and prompted many shipping companies to seek alternate routes. Panamanian economist Ricaurte Vásquez Morales has been the administrator of the Panama Canal Authority, which oversees the canal, since 2019. In conversation with AQ Editor-in-Chief Brian Winter, he discussed Trump’s recent statements regarding the...
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