US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has walked back the assertion of the State Department that Panama “has agreed to no longer charge fees” to US government vessels transiting the Panama Canal after outcry from the Panamanian government.

Panama's president says the State Department's claim of an agreement granting U.S. warships free canal passage was "based on a falsity. And that's intolerable."

The State Department claimed it had struck a deal that would save the U.S. government “millions of dollars a year.”