Enlarged Panama Canal seen boosting US-Asia trade

Panama City

WITH its capacity boosted nearly three times, Panama's enlarged canal - set to be inaugurated on Sunday - is expected to stimulate trade between the United States and Asia, and steal business from the rival Suez Canal.

"A good deal of the commerce between Asia and the east coast of the United States can pass through directly on Neopanamax ships, which will help both sides," Nicolas Ardito Barletta, a former Panamanian president and ex-VP of the World Bank in Latin America, told AFP.

Neopanamax ships, as their name suggests, are new-generation cargo vessels built specifically to pass through the broadened Panama Canal. They can carry up to three times the number of containers the previous generation of smaller Panamax ships …