{"id":84871,"date":"2025-08-21T00:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T00:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84871\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T00:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T00:03:10","slug":"panama-canal-warns-of-traffic-decline-as-economic-uncertainty-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84871\/","title":{"rendered":"Panama Canal Warns of Traffic Decline as Economic Uncertainty Grows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Panama Canal will take in about $400 million less in the next fiscal year due to a drop in ship traffic caused by global economic \u201cuncertainty,\u201d the canal authority warned Tuesday. For the upcoming fiscal year beginning October 1, the canal is expected to generate $5.207 billion from ship transits and other services, announced Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00f3n Icaza, Minister for Canal Affairs.<\/p>\n<p>That figure represents a decrease of $411 million (-7.4%) compared with projected revenues for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30. According to forecasts, there will be between 1,100 and 1,200 fewer transits than this year, when about 13,900 vessels carrying roughly 520 million tons of cargo will have crossed the route.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in a period of extreme volatility, with high levels of uncertainty pointing to a possible drop in traffic volume through the Panama Canal,\u201d said canal administrator Ricaurte V\u00e1squez. This decline, V\u00e1squez explained, stems from lower projected global economic growth rates, which have fallen from 3.3% earlier this year to 2.5% today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the economy slows, trade volumes decrease,\u201d he added. Last Thursday, V\u00e1squez said it was \u201cvery likely\u201d that over time the canal would not see \u201cthe same volume\u201d of cargo due to <a href=\"https:\/\/ticotimes.net\/2025\/06\/15\/the-hidden-costs-of-living-in-costa-rica-tariffs-monopolies-and-more\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">tariffs<\/a> imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Since August 7, dozens of economies worldwide have faced higher U.S. customs duties, as Trump\u2019s long-threatened \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs took effect in response to what he deems unfair trade practices. However, neither V\u00e1squez nor Icaza, who spoke to the press after presenting the projections to Panama\u2019s Cabinet, mentioned Trump\u2019s tariff policies.<\/p>\n<p>The 80-kilometer Panama Canal links the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and connects more than 1,900 ports in 170 countries. Roughly 5% of global maritime trade passes through the canal. Its main route connects ports in China, Japan, and South Korea with terminals on the U.S. East Coast.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the projected revenue drop, the canal expects to deliver $3.194 billion to Panama\u2019s national treasury next year\u2014about $400 million more than this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Panama Canal will take in about $400 million less in the next fiscal year due to a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-84871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}