On March 7, 2017, Alexis Zuleta filed a claim of unconstitutionality with the Supreme Court, stating that the Contract Law between the Maritime Authority of Panama and PSA contains two clauses that are unconstitutional. Said clauses refer to the right to charge commercial rates that PSA deems appropriate, and allow any importer / exporter to use the terminal charging the price that PSA decides.
These two clauses are substantially repeated in each contract of the Maritime Authority of Panama with each of the other competing terminals, such as the ports of Panama, Balboa and Colon, Manzanillo International Terminal, Colon Container Terminal and others.
Resolution:
As usual, the Supreme Court sent the complaint to the Attorney General's Office. The Attorney General affirmed that neither of the two clauses can be understood as a privilege, since the company provides a service within a commercial framework, in a country where, there is free competition. In addition, said right to charge for a service should not be interpreted as a collection of taxes, but as a commercial transaction. The Attorney General recommended declaring that both clauses aren´t unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of PSA, stating that the clauses indicated in the Contract Law are not unconstitutional.