What Panama buys, and from whom.
Panama imported USD 18bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, up 11 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 3 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.
Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.
The twenty countries Panama imports most from.
A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Panama is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Panama.
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1
China
Share of Panama's imports33 per centChangeup 14 per cent on 2022USD 5.9bnin 2024 -
2
United States
Share of Panama's imports15 per centChangeup 1 per cent on 2022USD 2.7bnin 2024 -
3
Spain
Share of Panama's imports12 per centChangeup 326 per cent on 2022USD 2.2bnin 2024 -
4
Mexico
Share of Panama's imports4 per centChangeup 3 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 690min 2024 -
5
Costa Rica
Share of Panama's imports3 per centChangeup 6 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 576min 2024 -
6
Japan
Share of Panama's imports3 per centChangeup 6 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 531min 2024 -
7
Germany
Share of Panama's imports3 per centChangeup 7 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 443min 2024 -
8
Thailand
Share of Panama's imports2 per centChangeup 95 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 370min 2024 -
9
France
Share of Panama's imports2 per centChangeup 32 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 337min 2024 -
10
Colombia
Share of Panama's imports2 per centChangeup 6 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 330min 2024 -
11
Brazil
Share of Panama's imports2 per centChangedown 4 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 314min 2024 -
12
Guatemala
Share of Panama's imports2 per centChangeup 12 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 311min 2024 -
13
South Korea
Share of Panama's imports1 per centChangedown 17 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 256min 2024 -
14
India
Share of Panama's imports1 per centChangedown 14 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 254min 2024 -
15
Italy
Share of Panama's imports1 per centChangeup 12 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 216min 2024 -
16
United Kingdom
Share of Panama's imports1 per centChangedown 39 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 209min 2024 -
17
Turkey
Share of Panama's imports1 per centChangedown 23 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 166min 2024 -
18
Indonesia
Share of Panama's imports1 per centChangeup 4 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 156min 2024 -
19
Switzerland
Share of Panama's imports1 per centChangeup 22 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 129min 2024 -
20
Belgium
Share of Panama's imports1 per centChangeup 15 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 121min 2024
What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.
Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.
Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Panama with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.
Share is China's part of everything Panama imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.
Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.
A record of trade, not a shopping list.
What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.
Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.