Colombia: On 28 January Colombia’s foreign ministry announced that the now former foreign minister,
Luis Gilberto Murillo (2024-2025), Colombia’s ambassador to the US,
Daniel García-Peña, and US Special Envoy for Latin America
Mauricio Claver-Carone had held a high-level meeting in Washington, D.C. to “
solidify the agreements reached [on 26 January]” and “
drive their implementation forward”. The meeting followed the resolution of the recent row between the governments after two US military planes transporting migrants from the US to Colombia
were refused permission to land by President
Gustavo Petro. This led US President
Donald Trump to threaten 25% tariffs on Colombian goods, rising to 50% after one week, as well as a travel ban and visa revocations on Colombian government officials, inter alia. This prompted Petro to retaliate with similar threats regarding tariffs on US goods, although a subsequent 26 January statement from White House Press Secretary
Karoline Leavitt announced that “
the government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on military aircraft”. The implementation of tariffs on Colombian exports to the US would have been hugely damaging for Colombia given the US is Colombia’s largest trade and investment partner, with bilateral trade in goods and services totalling over US$39.3bn in 2022 and large investments in the mining and manufacturing sectors according to a January 2025 update by the US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Colombia is also the US’ third-largest trade partner in Latin America and US-owned affiliates account for more than 90,000 jobs in Colombia, according to the same source.
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