Barbara Stephenson: Panama Canal hit by drought

Former US Ambassador to Panama Barbara Stephenson explains how a drought impacted the Panama Canal, leading to increased fees for shipping.

Transcript

00:00Is Donald Trump serious about taking back control of the Panama Canal?

00:06There's a bee in his bonnet. I think we can all see that.

00:09Now, exactly what he is on about and what he plans to do

00:14I think is a subject of a lot of discussion in Washington

00:18and certainly in our hemisphere.

00:21You know, I can certainly imagine a shipper of liquefied natural gas

00:26which goes from our Gulf ports through the Panama Canal to Asia

00:30in about the course of a month

00:32being alarmed in 2023 and 2024

00:36when the shipping tolls went up dramatically.

00:39And the answer to why that happened is that

00:42there was a severe drought in Panama

00:44and it's not a flat canal like Suez.

00:47It's a canal where the ships have to be lifted through locks with fresh water

00:51taken across the high part of the middle of the country

00:55drop down and then that fresh water goes out to the ocean with each passage.

00:59So it uses a lot of water to transit the ships through.