Panama Canal Officials Respond to Trump’s Threats to Retake It On CNN: ‘We Get To Keep Everything’

Officials in charge of managing the Panama Canal rebuffed President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to retake control of the vital waterway.

CNN’s chief domestic correspondent Phil Mattingly traveled to Panama to speak with current and former officials in charge of the canal. In recent weeks, Trump has demanded that Panama lower the shipping fees for U.S. ships or return control of the canal.

Moreover, the president-elect has not ruled out using military and economic coercion to retain control over the canal.  The deputy administrator of the canal, Ilya Espino de Marotta, told CNN that Trump’s demands for lower fees are not possible due to treaties mandating equal treatment for all countries. She pointed out that most trading vessels come through new waterways built by Panama, not the United States.

Former Panama Canal administrator Jorge Luis Quijano responded to Trump’s threats by vowing that Panama would “keep everything.”

MATTINGLY: Trump has also ignored that the canal today is far bigger than the one handed over by the United States. There was an expansion. Yes, the US government played what role in the expanded version?

MAROTTA: As far as financially, none.

MATTINGLY More than half of the revenue that comes in from the Panama Canal doesn’t come in through the one that the United States was integral in building. It comes in through the expansion.

MAROTTA: That’s right.

…

MATTINGLY: So when President elect Trump says he’s taking that he wants to take the canal back. Do you guys get to keep the one you did?

QUIJANO: No. No. We get to keep everything.

Watch the clip above via CNN.