Panama court is asked to cancel Hong Kong firm’s contract to run canal ports

Complaint by local lawyers to supreme court follows US demands to reduce China's alleged influence on waterway

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Two Panamanian lawyers have lodged a lawsuit with the country's supreme court in an attempt to cancel a Hong Kong-based company's concession to operate two ports at either end of the Panama canal.

Their complaint - filed a day after the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told Panama's president, Jose Raul Mulino, to reduce China's alleged influence on the canal - argues that the contract for the two ports is unconstitutional.