Chinese antitrust regulators are investigating a US consortium’s deal for two ports in the Panama Canal zone, reportedly delaying the deal’s closing that was originally set for next week.
President Donald Trump has incorrectly claimed China controls the canal (Panama controls it, although China owns ports on both sides of the crucial maritime passage). Trump has threatened to have the United States once again take control of the canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The deal, led by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with an enormous pool of $11.6 trillion in assets, was announced earlier this month and was widely viewed as a way to ease tensions in the region. BlackRock agreed to lead a group that would buy Hong Kong firm CK Hutchison’s controlling interest in 43 other ports around the world, comprising 199 berths in 23 countries.
But China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, the top market regulator, said in answer to a question posed by the state-owned newspaper Ta Kung Pao that it had started an investigation into the deal “in accordance with the law to protect fair competition in the market and safeguard the public interest.” The same statement was reposted on Friday on the website of China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office.
Following that announcement CK Hutchinson decided that “there will not be an official signing of the two Panama ports deal next week,” according to a report in the South China Morning Post, citing a source close to the Hong Kong firm.
BlackRock did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did CK Hutchinson.
Panamá should ban all military ships from all nations from going through the canal. That would go a long way towards promoting world peace and easing trade.
Of course, realistically, they would be invaded by the US faster than you can say “Pissing off the richest military dictatorship in the world isn’t a smart idea”. Still, the idea is appealing.
I’m pretty sure one of the two treaties that handed over control of the Panama Canal Zone specifically allows the U.S. to use military force to defend the neutrality of the Canal and gives the U.S. military access (paying the same tolls as anyone else but they’re not much: wikipedia says $3 million a year).
I mean, not that Trump necessarily cares. But it’s a fully ratified treaty by 2/3 of the Senate (and in Panama by referendum). Even this Calvinball-ass Supreme Court would probably vote 7-2 that a treaty signed by the president and ratified by the Senate isn’t something an executive order can override. Executive orders aren’t even laws, much less ratified treaties.
Panamá should ban all military ships from all nations from going through the canal. That would go a long way towards promoting world peace and easing trade.
That’s a critical passageway for the US. It’d be something like the Strait of the Gibraltar being severed for Europe, cutting half of the entity off from the other half by water and requiring their Med-based and Pacific-based ships to go around Africa to reach each other.
That’s a critical passageway for the US. It’d be something like the Strait of the Gibraltar being severed for Europe,
It’s quite different: the Panama Canal belongs to Panama and theirs to do as they please. Gibraltar, while not international waters, is free to all navigation for the purpose of crossing under the Law of the Sea Convention and may not be closed off by either Spain or Morocco.
I’d rather see them destroyed than owned by Arasaka (Blackrock)
Burn corpo shit
