¿Taking on water
The Panama ports deal is delayed, as China signals dissent
Xi Jinping may be wanting to increase leverage over America
It was never going to be a simple transaction.
But the deal hailed by Donald Trump as a way to regain American control of the Panama Canal seems to get more complicated by the week.
BlackRock, an American investment firm, was scheduled to sign an agreement on April 2nd to buy 43 ports, including two in Panama, from ck Hutchison (ckh), their Hong Kong-based operator.
That signing has now been postponed, even though both sides suggest the deal is still on.
This follows fresh signs of disapproval from China.
One of the strongest came on March 28th when its antitrust regulator said it would review the deal “to protect fair competition in the market and safeguard the public interest”.
Ta Kung Pao, a pro-China newspaper in Hong Kong, has stepped up its criticism since its first diatribe on March 13th.
On March 31st it ran a full page of articles including comments from Hong Kong politicians and Chinese lawyers praising the mainland regulator’s decision and urging ckh to rethink.
Some suggested the deal could violate Chinese laws.
China has also ordered state-owned firms to hold off from new collaboration with businesses linked to ckh’s owner, Li Ka-shing, and his family, Bloomberg reported on March 27th.
That is one of many informal ways that China could try to sink the deal.
Meanwhile, Panama’s authorities are pursuing two potential avenues to cancel ckh’s port concessions: an audit, due to be completed soon, and a challenge to their constitutionality in the supreme court.
But since Mr Trump’s announcement of the BlackRock deal raised the geopolitical stakes, Panamanian officials fear stiffer Chinese resistance to any legal or regulatory action against ckh, as well as to the proposed sale.
Yet it is unclear if Xi Jinping, China’s leader, has made a final decision.
His foreign ministry continues to avoid commenting directly, saying only that it opposes economic coercion.
His central propaganda outlets have yet to chime in.
That suggests Mr Xi may be trying to build leverage for any potential negotiations with Mr Trump over the port deal, as well as over trade, Taiwan and other issues.
And because BlackRock and ckh agreed to 145 days of exclusive negotiations, there is still room for manoeuvre.
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