On August 15 Panama celebrated one hundred years of operation of its canal. It did so against a background of new canal developments both on the Central American isthmus and in the Middle East that likely will have both positive and negative implications for the Caribbean Basin.
For some countries in the region what is now being proposed may raise questions in the short to medium term about the viability of the numerous projects being planned, underway or completed, that aim to take advantage of the widening of the Panama Canal, but in the longer term seem to suggest that the region will be uniquely placed to become a global centre for transhipment, assembly and manufacturing, requiring a much closer relationship with Central and South America.
As is now well understood, the Caribbean commands access
