It appears that possible steep tariffs against Colombia are on hold after the country caved to President Donald Trump’s demand it accept migrant flights.
Trump had threatened 25% and 50% tariff increases in a spat over conditions on flights to the South American country.
Colombia is not a major trading partner with the U.S. with exports to the small country only accounting for about 1% of U.S. trade.
U.S. goods exports to Colombia totaled an estimated $20.8 billion in 2022, according to U.S. trade officials and imports to the U.S. were $18.5 billion. The U.S. has a $2.3 billion trade surplus with Colombia in 2022.
Colombia’s biggest exports to the U.S. in 2023 were fuels, oils and distillation products according to Trading Economics and totaled $6.23 billion. Any fuel tariffs could drive up transportation costs in the U.S.
Flowers are the number two export to the U.S. with $1.68 billion in live trees, plants, bulbs, roots and cut flowers flowing from Colombia in 2023. Any tariff increases could drive up flower prices for create shortages for Valentine’s Day.
Pearls, precious stones, metals and coins are the third largest Colombian exports to the states, amounting to $1.45 billion in imports in 2023.
Coffee is the fourth largest import into the U.S. from Colombia with $1.2 billion in 2023. Coffee prices have already been at record levels due to severe weather in Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s top coffee producers.
Rising demand, including a doubling of coffee consumption in China over the past decade, has further strained supplies.
Other categories of imports are smaller than $1 billion each, including aluminum, electrical and electronic equipment, fruits and nuts, plastics, sugar, animal and vegetable fats and oils, fish, vegetables and glass.
Any tariff hikes could drive up consumer costs for those items but would likely be muted by the small market size Colombia commands for those products.
Colombia on Sunday backed down and agreed to accept deported citizens sent on U.S. military aircraft, hours after Trump threatened painful tariffs to punish the defiance to his mass deportation plans.
Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, had earlier said he would only take back citizens “with dignity,” such as on civilian planes, and had turned back two U.S. military aircraft with repatriated Colombians.
Trump, less than a week back in office, responded furiously and threatened sanctions of 25 percent that would quickly scale up to 50 percent against Latin America’s fourth-largest economy.
Petro initially sought to hit back and impose his own tariffs on US products, but by the end of the volatile Sunday, he had backed down.
Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo told a late-night news conference that his country had “overcome the impasse” and would accept returned citizens.
The AFP contributed to this report.
