The Government of Panama has used supposed ‘green issues’ to introduce more legislation that will unfairly discriminate against owners of classic vehicles, whilst exempting the heaviest pollution contributors such as heavy goods vehicles and passenger transport. If they truly meant to reduce harmful emissions their first target should be shipping but that would take political courage of a type that doesn’t exist in this part of the world.

Whereby similar legislation introduced by many other governments has invariably included exemption of define classic cars from these laws Panama has not, underscoring their lack of understanding or awareness. Classic cars are examples of how vehicles should be cared for and maintained by the motoring public in the genuine interests of road safety. A cursory glance around the streets of Panama City underscores the seriousness of vehicle safety that should be a first priority and which if tackled would create a major improvement in emission control as an additional benefit. Properly maintained vehicles create far less pollution as well as reducing unacceptable death tolls on the road.

Another example of the Governments irrational dislike of classic cars is the indefensible prohibition of right-hand drive cars. Just this week, the world renowned ‘Bridget the Midget’ car was refused entry to Panama by customs officials at Colon, and it was only after a successful appeal to the local Transit Office that the car was allowed a temporary pass to drive through Panama to Costa Rica. Can they really expect anyone to believe that there is a genuine safety problem with a car because the steering is different? How many accidents involving right-hand drive cars has there been in the past ten years?

It appears that this Government is just trying to be seen to take action on international issues without actually understanding the pros and cons. Ill conceived legislation is far worse than no legislation.