Court Upholds Peru Control of Chinese Port in Win for Washington

By Carla Samon Ros

Jul 2, 2026 (Bloomberg) –A Peruvian court ordered the government to oversee a Chinese-owned port near Lima, helping US efforts to curb Beijing’s growing power in the region. 

The ruling overturns a January decision that said the Pacific port of Chancay was exempt from some oversight by Peru’s infrastructure regulator Ositran. 

Chancay is a privately-owned port, operated by Chinese-owned COSCO Shipping Ports, which was designed to cut shipping times between Latin America and Asia. But as the US renewed its focus on the region, it became a focus of the growing rivalry between Washington and Beijing.   

That earlier ruling raised alarms in the Donald Trump administration, which warned that this would undermine Peru’s sovereignty. Ositran also criticized that decision, arguing it would leave port users unprotected. 

“Let this be a cautionary tale for the region and the world: cheap Chinese money costs sovereignty,” the US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs wrote last February in a post on X. 

The US Ambassador to Peru Bernie Navarro celebrated the ruling on social media. He visited Chancay for the first time last month to donate two scanners aimed at improving the work of Peru’s customs agency.

Read More: US Warns Peru That a Chinese Port Is Costing Its Sovereignty

The $1.3-billion port was inaugurated by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2024. The Asian giant is Peru’s biggest trading partner, followed by the US.

The new ruling accepted the argument that, although Chancay is privately owned, it is a public-use port. As a result, it falls under Ositran’s powers to regulate, supervise, inspect and sanction operators under Peruvian law, the regulator said in a statement.

The decision can still be appealed. Cosco Shipping Ports did not respond to a request for comment. 

Earlier this week, both Navarro and Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated conservative Keiko Fujimori for winning the presidential election, saying the Trump administration looks forward to deepening cooperation on regional security and trade.

© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.

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