The United States and Colombia backed out of the trade war on Sunday.
Washington threatened tariffs and sanctions against Bogota after Colombia refused to accept two US military aircraft with Colombian citizens deported from the US. The United States is Colombia’s largest trading partner.
US President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro traded barbs online late Sunday, with Colombia ultimately agreeing for DeCourty and the US to claim victory. There are details about what happened and what happened for Washington and Bogotá.
What was Trump’s column with Colombia?
Colombian President Petro has vetoed two U.S. military planes carrying land for deported Colombian migrants amid Trump’s harsh crackdown on migration to the United States.
He accused Trump of not treating deported immigrants with dignity and respect. Petro reposted a video of X showing Denner at a Brazilian airport with his hands and feet restrained. “We cannot allow immigrants to remain in a country that does not want them. But if that country sends them back, it must have dignity and respect for them and our country,” he said. wrote.
In 2022, there were an estimated 240,000 unauthorized Colombian immigrants in the United States, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Petro offered to send a presidential plane to facilitate the return of the migrants.
Trump fired back, accusing Petro of endangering U.S. national security.
Threatening tariffs and sanctions, Trump wrote on his Truth social platform on Sunday: “These measures are just the beginning. The Colombian government will not allow them to violate the legal obligations they have imposed on the United States regarding the reception and return of criminals!”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said on Sunday that he recognized visa restrictions on Colombian officials and their families who were “responsible for interfering with U.S. repatriation flight operations.”
What was Trump’s tariff threat?
Following a back and forth, Trump upped his threats and ordered a 25% tariff on all Colombian goods coming into the United States. These tariffs will rise to 50% next week, he warned.
Additionally, Trump said he would impose “visa sanctions” and “travel bans and immediate visa cancellations” on government officials and their families and supporters, and tighten border inspections for all Colombian citizens and cargo.
What was Colombia’s reaction?
In retaliation for Trump’s threat, Petro also threatened to impose 25% tariffs on U.S. goods.
Colombia’s president posted a series of defiant messages on X on Sunday in response to Trump’s threats.
“Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, in addition to being a country of beauty, is the center of the world,” he wrote to one of them.
“The United States cannot treat Colombian immigrants as criminals,” Petro wrote in X, noting that “there are 15,660 Americans irregularly settled in Colombia.”
The line was resolved late Sunday. Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo told a news conference that officials had “overcome the impasse” and would accept citizens deported from the United States. He added: “The Colombian government…the presidential plane is ready to facilitate the return of Colombians arriving in the country on deportation flights this morning.”
The Colombian statement further said that Murillo and the US ambassador to Colombia will travel to Washington in the coming days to continue diplomatic dialogue and defuse tensions.
The White House reiterated this in a statement, saying Colombia had agreed to all of Trump’s conditions, including “unrestricted admission of all illegal aliens from Colombia, including U.S. military aircraft.” .
What does the US import from Colombia?
Had the tariff war gone ahead, both sides would have been hurt.
From January 2024 to November 2024, the United States imported $16 billion worth of goods from Colombia, according to U.S. Census data.
The United States receives the largest supply from Colombia, importing nearly two-thirds, or 66%, of its cut flowers from the country, according to 2022 data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). Valentine’s Day, coming up on February 14th, would have pinched more Americans if the tariffs had been kicked.
The United States also sources more than 20% of its imported coffee from Colombia. This is just a fraction of Brazil, which is the largest supplier of coffee to the United States.
The United States also imports rough stone, gold, aluminum structures, bananas, and coffee and tea extracts from Colombia, but in much smaller amounts.
Colombia is one of the rare countries with a trade deficit with Washington. In other words, the United States exports more to Colombia than it imports from the South American country.
How will the trade war with the US affect Colombia?
Although the trade war would have made certain goods, such as flowers and coffee, more costly for U.S. consumers, it would have had a significant impact on Colombia’s economy, affecting both exports and imports.
“These measures will have important political and economic implications,” Victor Muñoz, a visiting fellow at the German-based think tank European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera.
“For Colombia, such actions could lead to the loss of thousands of jobs, especially in sectors such as oil and gas, gold, coffee and flowers,” he explained.
According to 2022 OEC data, the United States is Colombia’s largest trading partner in terms of both imports and exports. A quarter of Colombia’s exports go to the United States, and imports from the United States account for 26.4% of Colombia’s total imports.
“Colombia has been expanding its commercial partnerships and diversifying its international relationships for decades. However, we cannot expect Colombia to immediately replace export destinations on the scale of its products and services or U.S. investments. is unrealistic in the short term,” Muñoz said.
From January 2024 to November 2024, Colombia imported $17 billion worth of goods from the United States, according to U.S. Census data.
The United States sent approximately $2.5 billion worth of petroleum products to Colombia in 2023, making petroleum products the most valuable export to Colombia. The next most valuable export was corn at $1.2 billion in 2023 and $1 billion in the same year.
Colombia also imports soybean meals and planes from the United States.
“Tariffs could also cause a devaluation of the Colombian peso, increasing economic risks and inflationary pressures due to higher costs of imported goods and raw materials,” Muñoz said.
“Such measures will undoubtedly generate significant economic and social consequences for affected countries like Colombia.”
What is a deportation flight?
Deportation flights are flights that transport unauthorized immigrants back to their country of origin. However, this is the first time that US military aircraft have been used to deport immigrants, Agence France-Presse reported.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, deportations are not new. However, it has skyrocketed since the 1990s.
When Democratic President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he promised to suspend deportations, but he expanded them and recently deported the most immigrants in nearly a decade.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website, between 2021 and 2024, the United States expelled 28,635 Colombian citizens. Almost half of these were in fiscal year 2024.
But Trump will contest the 2024 election with accusations that the Biden administration has allowed “hordes” of undocumented immigrants to enter the country, and that the country is sending violent criminals to the United States. He made unsubstantiated claims suggesting that
He promised to carry out “the largest deportation operation in history.”
Meanwhile, Trump has also made it clear that he intends to use tariffs as a weapon. He is threatening tough tariffs targeting countries including China, Mexico and Canada.