our guest is orlando perez, a political science professor at the university of texas at dallas and ourions on history of the panama canal. professor perez apologies for jumping in. you weres talking about the treaties, what they allow us to do. please continue. >> guest: as i was saying, and please interrupt me whenever you feel the need to do that. i can get carried away with the narrative here. so two treaties, one, the panama canal treaty and the other one the neutrality treaty. the panama canal treaty basically set up a process by which the united states would eventually by 1999 turnover control of the panama canal, the management of the panama canal. this was a process that took about 20 years of gradually turning over pieces and areas of the canal zone to panamanian management. so ultimately on december 31, 1999, panama received the management of the canal. the neutrality treaty was a separate treaty by which the panamanians committed themselves to maintaining the panama canal as a neutral waterway, not favoring any particular country or particular international power or actor, t

discuss the history of the panama candle is university of north texas political science professor orlando perez. >> thank you for having me. >> we will start with just the basics. we have been hearing a lot about the pan malcandle. remind our -- panama candle. remind us what it is and why it was or not important to the u.s. >> the panama canal is one of the most important interoceanic water way he's in the world. about 5% of global cargo commerce passes through the canal on a yearly basis, but for the united states it is over 40% of our container shipment passes through the canal. and about 70% of canal traffic is from the united states. we are the leading users of the canal. particularly, it is particularly important for trade between the eastern seaboard ports and the west. it cuts down about 7,000 miles of shipping distance when you traverse the canal to go from the east coast to the west coast. in terms of shipping an global commerce, the canal is a very important and perhaps the most important interoceanic waterway. we have to go back in history to understand the importance of the canal to

our guest is orlando perez, a political science professor at the university of texas at dallas, and ouriscussion is on the history of the panama canal. professor perez, apologies for jumping in there. you were talking about the treaties, what they allow us to do. please continue. guest: as i was saying, and please interrupt me whenever you feel the need to do that. i can get carried away with the narrative here. so, two treaties, one, panama canal treaty, and the other one, the neutrality treaty. the panama canal treaty basically set up a process by which the united states would eventually, by december 31, 1999, turnover control of the panama canal, the management of the panama canal, to panama. this was a process that took about 20 years, gradually turning over pieces and areas of the canal zone to panamanian management, and ultimately on december 31, 1999 panama received the management of the canal. the neutrality treaty was a separate treaty by which the panamanians committed themselves to maintaining the panama canal as a neutral waterway. not favoring any particular country or part

our guest is orlando perez, a political science professor at the university of texas at dallas. discussion is on the history of the panama canal. and professor perez, apologies for jumping in, you are talking about the treaties and what they allow us to do and please continue. guest: yes. as i was saying. and please, interrupt me whenever you feel the need to do that. i can get carried away with the narrative here. so, two treaties, one the panama canal treaty and the other one the neutrality treaty. the panama canal treaty set up a process by which the united states would eventually by december 31, 1999, turned over control of the panama canal. management of the canal to panama. this was a process that took about 20 years, gradually turning over pieces and areas of the canal zone to panamanian management until ultimately on december 31, 1991 -- 1999, panama received the management of the canal. the neutrality treaty was a separate treaty by which the panamanians committed themselves to maintaining of kent the panama canal as a neutral waterway, not favoring any particular countr