Why does Trump want the Panama Canal? - The Global Story podcast, BBC World Service

Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has made a string of expansionist foreign policy announcements, angering several of his international counterparts.

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After reiterating his ambitious intention to purchase Greenland, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the US president doubled down on his insistence that Washington should regain control of the Panama Canal, the essential shipping passage he claims has been commandeered by China.

Built by the United States in the early twentieth century, the waterway transformed global trade and marked America’s emergence as a superpower on the world stage, before being transferred to Panamanian control via a 1977 treaty. So why has Donald Trump got it in his sights now?

In this episode Jonny Dymond speaks to Julie Greene, professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, about the storied history of the Panama Canal. And the BBC’s North America business correspondent Michelle Fleury discusses the politics and economics behind the Trump administration's diplomatic pursuit of the trade route.

00:00 Intro
01:06 Trump’s election campaign
02:09 Why claim the canal?
03:03 China and the Panama Canal
05:12 Transit fees
06:22 Why is this happening?
07:49 The history behind the canal
09:26 America and the Panama Canal
11:00 Canal changes hands
12:47 The riots
14:01 The treaties
17:00 Outro

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Image credit: Reuters/Enea Lebrun

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