Panama lobbies Nordic industry in Brussels end-run

Panama has entered the second phase of its economic diplomacy, dispatching Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha Vásquez to Stockholm to lobby Nordic industrial heavyweights. The move follows domestic passage of Ley 641, a 15% levy on shell entities, and aims to bypass EU technocracy by engaging individual member states. Martínez-Acha met with Swedish officials and signed an MOU on political consultations, while convening a commercial roundtable with companies including Tetra Pak, Ericsson, and Volvo Buses.