Eisenhower-Remón Treaty (1955)

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Eisenhower-Remón Treaty (1955)

Eisenhower-Remón Treaty (1955), one of a series of accords (signed 25 January) redefining the status of the Panama Canal Zone. According to this agreement the United States gradually relinquished privileges gained in the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903, an accord already revised, in particular through the Hull-Alfaro Treaty of 1936, in which the United States relinquished its protectorate over Panama.

The Eisenhower-Remón Treaty addressed the economic issues related to the status of U.S. citizens of the Canal Zone, a source of constant irritation to Panamanians, who considered the zone a colonial enclave. Although it did not alter U.S. sovereignty over the zone, the treaty increased the annual payment to Panama to $1,930,000, granted Panama the right to tax the income of Canal Zone employees who were not U.S. citizens, and modified the zone boundaries. Commissary and post exchange (PX) privileges of U.S. citizens in the zone were limited to those citizens who actually worked for the canal, and Panama gained the right to impose import duties on some goods entering the zone. These provisions increased the share of zonian business controlled by Panamanian firms. The United States also relinquished its control of sanitation in Panama City and Colón, and its exclusive rights to construct transisthmian railroads and highways. Panama granted the United States a fifteen-year lease on 19,000 acres of land outside the zone for military exercises.

The treaty was supplemented by a Memorandum of Understandings Reached, pledging the establishment of a single wage level for all Canal Zone employees and equal employment opportunities for Panamanian citizens in zone posts, thereby eliminating the privileged status of U.S. citizens in the zone.

See alsoPanama Canal .