Opinion | The true cost of Panama’s port seizure lies in lost predictability
In global logistics, reliability is currency. When commitments become provisional, the cost is measured not only in legal fees but in confidence
It is not simply a contractual dispute dressed up as constitutional housekeeping. It is a stress test of the rule of law in an age when great power rivalry tempts smaller states to improvise.
The government insists this is lawful. Critics see something closer to expropriation by decree.
Governments have the right to revisit deals. Contracts are not holy writ. But they are the scaffolding on which modern commerce rests. When a 30-year agreement, repeatedly affirmed, can be voided in a political season, investors will not study the footnotes of the ruling. They will study the risk premium.
Panama is not an isolated island of lawlessness. It is a service economy built on trust, logistics and finance. Its canal is a marvel of engineering and an artery of globalisation. The country’s prosperity depends on convincing the world it is a predictable steward of assets that do not belong to it alone in any moral sense. Yet predictability is precisely what has been called into question.