As for the Panama Canal, Mulino denied U.S. vessels are being overcharged to use the waterway and emphasized that China plays no role in the canal. A Hong Kong-based firm manages two ports at the Panama Canal’s entrances, but Panama owns and operates the entire canal.

The canal, which was completed in 1914, was constructed by the United States and handed over to Panama on December 31, 1999, according to treaties signed approximately twenty years earlier