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Americans taking over Canada, Panama and Greenland - are these real threats? Not since 1989, when America's 82nd Airborne Division came calling to arrest Panama's head of government, General Manuel Noriega, to answer domestic drug charges in Miami, has Panama been so threatened by America.
Hopes that the Hutchison sale of container terminals would placate the US and solve the problem have been dashed. Partly because China has delayed the sale and partly because American pressure on Panama has not relented.
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Considering the impact of the creation of a US-flagged, built and crewed merchant fleet
US President Donald Trump has a dream of creating a merchant marine worthy of the Unites States of America. While he imagines it from laying down keels to the domination of trade lanes, the dream might well turn out to be the nightmare many expect.
One respects Mr Trump enough to know the risks involved. Ocean carriers are mostly foreign flagged mainly because they employ affordable labour, and that American workers are among the world's least affordable.
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US is more bark than bite - the greater menace are environmental rules and mandates
By now friend and foe across the Western World's political spectrum have come to regard US President Donald Trump's first hair-raising salvos were ranging shots having concussion but little shrapnel.
In Napoleonic artillery terms, the initial scattered shots, threats to take over the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada, plus the raft of tariffs on imports from US allies served to gauge reactions, a provide indications of strengths and weaknesses in coming trade talks.
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Tidal wave of maritime regulations will make world shipping more onerous and costly
Unless Elon's Musketeers come to the rescue, a tidal wave of costly, burdensome regulations will hit the maritime sector before the year is out.
They range from highly-complex compliance challenges to strict environmental performance mandates, new security and safety rules and higher levels of greenhouse gas emission reductions.
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