To Expand or Not to Expand: That's the Canal Question

Inter Press Service News Agency ^ | Sep 30, 2006 | María Mercedes de la Guardia

[kellynla]

PANAMA CITY, Sep 30 (IPS) - On Oct. 22, Panamanians will head to the polls in a referendum to decide the future and possible expansion of the Panama Canal, the main economic driver of this country of three million people.

The canal is expected to generate 1.4 billion dollars in the 2006 fiscal year, of which 560 million will go to the state coffers. According to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the proposed expansion would increase these revenues to 6.23 billion dollars by 2025, boosting treasury contributions to up to 4.19 billion.

If to this year's 560 million are added the 2.21 billion dollars that according to renowned economist Nicolás Ardito are attributable to the broader Canal Economic System (SEC) -- ranging from the maritime sector to the multiple trade-related services -- that brings the total generated by the canal to nearly 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

But economics is just one factor.

Panama became a republic in 1903, under the protection of then U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909). His goal was to negotiate with the fledgling state the construction of a route to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the isthmus.

The Hay-Buneau-Varilla treaty paved the way for the project, and created a U.S. enclave on Panamanian territory -- the Canal Zone -- the focus of much nationalist ire and the defining issue in Panama's foreign policy in the 20th

[Lokibob]

I, for one, am glad WE don't have to pay for the expansion of the Panama canal. We got the best use out of the canal for 99 years.

[Don Corleone]

Call for Jimma Kartah!

[hnj_00]

the US should build it's own canal at the mexican border.

2 for 1....new shipping lanes and keeps out illegals!!!

[Lokibob]

$1.5 billion for a fence, $1.5 trillion for a canal.