The Cabinet Council, lead by the President of the Republic Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, authorized the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) to sign addendum to contracts for the construction, development, and operation of a box terminal that was signed in 2013 and that should have been ready and operational by a Chinese company last year, breaching this investment, which also prevented the development of a container yard whose investor is currently the shipping company MSC, one of the largest companies in the world.
The council of ministers authorized the AMP to sign addendum 1 to the contract for the development, construction and operation, administration and management of a box or general cargo terminal on Margarita island, Cristobal, province of Colón, signed between the State and the corporation Panama Canal Colon Port INC approved by law 43 of June 18, 2013. The General Comptroller of the Republic, Gerardo Solís, explained that this addendum to the contract is the result of a recommendation from this entity to the AMP, given the breach of all contractual clauses by this Chinese investment port. Solís explained to the ministers that after conducting audits in the ports that operate in Panama and finding that it could not make the investment and be ready in June 2021 and operational, employing more than thousands of people from Colon, these actions were recommended. In this situation, Noriel Araúz, administrator of the AMP explained that what is intended is to modify clauses of the 2013 contract through an addendum such as the increase in the amount of investment, the extension for 20 years, from the endorsement of the addendum, Investment Bond modification, among other aspects.
The council of ministers also authorized the AMP to sign addendum 1 to the contract for the construction and administration of a container yard and logistics park called Isla Margarita Logistic Park on Margarita island, Colón signed between the State and the corporation United Crown Construction Inc approved by Law 42 of June 18, 2013. This logistics park was not build at the time, because the box terminal did not exist, explained Araúz.
The objective of this project is to meet the storage demand required by adjacent ports and adequate planning of merchandise transport from the port of embarkation or disembarkation until it reaches its destination, according to the AMP. Araúz indicated that MSC, one of the largest cargo shipping companies, is involved in developing this project. MSC facilitates international trade between the world’s major economies and between emerging markets on all continents.
They include ground transportation, logistics and a growing portfolio of investments in port terminals. On the other hand, the Cabinet Council also authorized the Minister of Commerce and Industries (MICI) Federico Alfaro Boyd, to present to the National Assembly bills such as 25-22 that approves the Protocol of the Agreement establishing an Association between Central America and the European Union to take into account the inclusion of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union and the Bill 26-22 that approves the adherence protocol of the Republic of Guatemala to the Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and the Central American States signed in Schaan, Liechtenstein on June 22, 2015.
It indicated that the Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union (hereinafter AdA), was signed on June 29, 2012, ratified by the National Assembly through Law No. 27 of April 17, 2013, and published in the Official Gazette 27269, on April 18, 2013, entering into force for the Republic of Panama on August 1, 2013. Alfaro stressed that the European Union is the main destination for agricultural exports, being an important consumer of tropical products, such as bananas, and seafood, guaranteeing the continuous export of our products to that region, now with the inclusion of Croatia.
Regarding the second proposal on the adherence protocol of the Republic of Guatemala to the Free Trade Agreement between the States of the European Free Trade Association and the Central American States (Costa Rica and Panama), he indicated that the FTA between the States of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the Central American States (Costa Rica and Panama) was signed on June 24, 2013 and approved by the National Assembly through Law 4 of April 7, 2014. Guatemala and Honduras began negotiations, but they never finish and they withdrew. “On October 2014, two months after Panama put it into force, Guatemala concluded the negotiation with the EFTA States and in June 2015 the interested party States to the Agreement accepted Guatemala’s adherence,” said Alfaro. He explained that the inclusion of Guatemala to the Treaty will allow us to have access to another market for re-exports of goods originating from the European Free Trade States Association, through our logistics platform and the figure of the re-export certificate. Guatemala is currently the second destination for reexports from the Colon Free Zone in Central America
