Panama Canal Authority (ACP)

The Panama Canal Authority (Autoridad del Canal de Panama, ACP) is the autonomous Panamanian government agency that operates, maintains, and modernizes the Panama Canal. Created by Title XIV of Panama’s 1972 Constitution and Law No. 19 of 1997, it took full control on 31 December 1999 when the United States handed over the canal under the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The ACP sets transit tolls and booking-slot auctions, manages the 2016 Neopanamax locks, and rations daily transits during droughts; its 2023 to 2024 Gatun Lake drought cut daily slots and reshaped global routing.