Trump demanded free transit for U.S. ships in Panama and Suez canals

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, called via his Truth Social account for free transit for both US merchant ships and warships through the Suez and Panama canals. "American ships, both military and commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals! Those canals would not exist without the United States of America. I’ve asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to immediately take care of, and memorialize, this situation," the Republican leader affirmed.

Trump's statements came just weeks after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that officials from both his country and Panama would sign a "macro" agreement that would allow U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal "first and free." During his visit to the Caribbean country, Hegseth told reporters that the agreement is part of a memorandum of understanding on security cooperation signed by the governments of Trump and Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, adding that a document would soon be finalized that would guarantee U.S. auxiliary and warships not only free tolls through the canal, but also priority passage.

Focus on commercial shipping and China.

Since announcing his tariff war against more than 180 countries and territories around the world, the Republican leader has shown much attention to the issue of Chinese commercial shipping and shipbuilding with several journalists and political analysts highlighting that the ultimate goal of this item would be to promote the revival of U.S. shipbuilding, after the Trump administration stated on several occasions that the dominance of China in this sector was achieved in a way that undermines U.S. interests.

Several experts have mentioned that the American country's shipbuilding, which became the world leader a couple of decades ago, has experienced a strong decline since the 1980s due to subsidy cuts and foreign competition, among which China has mainly stood out with the use of practices considered not only unfair, but also unfair, including cost manipulation and trade barriers.