Panama’s President Raúl Mulino has denied the US State Department’s claim that the country had reached a deal to no longer charge fees for US government ships passing through the Panama Canal.
Mulino said at his weekly press conference on Thursday that he had told U.S. officials that he could neither set the fees to transit the canal nor exempt anyone from them and that he was surprised by the U.S. State Department’s statement suggesting otherwise late Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
“[The State Department] is making an important and institutional statement from the entity that governs the foreign policy of the United States under the President of the United States based on a falsehood, and that is intolerable. Simply and plainly intolerable,” Mulino said.
On Wednesday, the State Department wrote in a post on X: “US government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year.”
The Panama Canal Authority also issued a statement denying the State Department’s claim.
“In response to a publication released by the United States Department of State, the Panama Canal Authority, which is authorized to set tolls and other fees for transiting the Canal, reports that it has not made any adjustments to them,” the authority said in a statement.
