Panama denies making deal for US ships to transit the canal for free

Cargo ships wait to transit the Panama Canal (Matias Delacroix/AP)

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino has denied the US State Department’s claim that his country had reached a deal allowing US warships to transit the Panama Canal for free.

Mr Mulino said he had told US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth on Wednesday that he could neither set the fees to transit the canal nor exempt anyone from them and that he was surprised by the US State Department’s statement suggesting otherwise late Wednesday.