Trump Puts Tariffs, Sanctions on Colombia in Migrant Dispute
President Donald Trump ordered his administration to impose tariffs and sanctions on Colombia hours after its leftist president refused to allow two military planes carrying deported migrants to land, punishing a US security partner for stepping even partially out of line with his immigration goals.
In a social media post Sunday, Trump said he would put an emergency 25% tariff on all Colombian goods coming into the US, which will be raised to 50% in a week. Oil, gold, coffee and flowers top the list of exports, according to Colombia’s tax authorities.
“Petro’s denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States,” Trump said in his post.
Trump’s abrupt tariff announcement rattled global markets Monday after investors were lulled into a false sense of security when he refrained last week from immediately imposing tariffs on major trading partners including China. US equity futures slid in Asia after Wall Street had its best start to a US presidential term since Ronald Regan, while the greenback rose against most of its major peers, rebounding from its worst week in more than a year. The Mexican peso and South African ran led losses among emerging-market currencies.
Oil fell in early trade on Monday, with Brent dropping toward $78 a barrel, as tariffs and sanctions on Colombia undermined sentiment and served as a reminder of larger trade risks ahead. Colombia is the US’s fourth-biggest source of overseas oil, topping both Saudi Arabia and Brazil, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Trump’s action upended decades of warm relations between the two countries and may be devastating to the Andean nation’s fragile economy. Relations between Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro had been widely expected to be strained due to their divergent political views, though the deterioration was swifter and more damaging than almost anyone anticipated.
More broadly, Trump’s move shows how he sees tariffs as an economic weapon to be deployed against governments that may challenge his geopolitical goals. It sends a powerful message to the world, that not even old political allies are safe if they do not cooperate with him.
Petro responded less than three hours after Trump’s post that he had ordered retaliatory tariffs of 25% on US imports. The Colombian government will help with the process of replacing more expensive US imports with domestic production, he said in a post on X, without elaborating.
The actions were taken in response to two flights carrying a total of 160 people, part of a group of 350 Colombians scheduled for deportation, a person familiar with the situation said.
Petro initially welcomed the flights but changed his mind when it became clear the US was sending the migrants on military planes. Mexico canceled a flight of deportees before it took off, saying in advance that it would not allow a military plane to land in Mexico, the person said.
Latin American officials, including Petro, have also said they were dismayed by the migrants arriving in leg shackles and handcuffs. The US and El Salvador are working on an asylum agreement that would allow US officials to deport non-Salvadoran migrants to the Central American nation.
In a statement on Sunday, Colombia said it would offer the presidential plane to ferry migrants back. And Petro’s recently appointed Foreign Affairs Minister, Laura Sarabia, said that Colombia was open to talks with the US.
Source : Bloomberg
