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13-04-2026
BOGOTA: Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism has announced it will raise tariffs on neighboring Ecuador to 100 percent from 30 percent.
The sum, confirmed on Friday, will match the rate Ecuador set a day earlier, amid an escalating trade and diplomatic spat between the two South American nations.
Ecuador has in recent months hiked tariffs against its eastern neighbor, citing a trade deficit and accusing Colombia of not doing enough to fight drug trafficking.
Colombia, however, has denied Ecuador’s accusations, pointing to its military operations designed to intercept illicit drugs. Just last November, it seized its biggest shipment in a decade.
The right-wing government of Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa has also clashed with that of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Just this week, Noboa slammed Petro’s remarks about the imprisonment of former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas as an “assault on our sovereignty”.
Petro, for his part, has repeatedly called the left-wing Glas a “political prisoner” and has called for the former vice president, convicted of corruption, to be transferred to Colombian custody.
Last month, Petro also accused Noboa of bombing near the Colombian border, without coordinating with his government. Charred bodies were reportedly recovered from the scene.
Colombian Trade Minister Diana Morales on Friday explained that her country was forced to increase its tariffs in response to Ecuador’s decision to spike its tariffs to 100 percent on Thursday.
“We have exhausted all diplomatic efforts and kept channels of dialogue open with the government of Ecuador, seeking a solution that benefits both countries, businesses, and above all, the communities on both sides of the border,” she said.
“However, we have not received a positive response.”
Morales said Colombian countermeasures would take effect immediately.
In November, last year, Colombian authorities have made their largest cocaine bust in a decade, confiscating 14 tonnes at its main Pacific port, as President Gustavo Petro continues to fight back against claims from the administration of United States President Donald Trump of his complicity in the drug trade.
The seizure in the world’s largest cocaine-producing country came as Bolivia announced the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will be invited back into the country, 17 years after being expelled, to bolster the new conservative government’s anti-cocaine efforts.
Colombia’s Ministry of Defence hailed the “historic blow” to drug traffickers on Friday, as it announced it had seized dozens of 50-kilogramme (110-pound) sacks of cocaine inside a warehouse in the southwestern port of Buenaventura, a strategic departure point for Colombian cocaine.
“The drug was camouflaged under the method of being mixed with plaster,” it said, adding that the container was headed for the Netherlands.
“With this seizure, we prevented the circulation of 35 million doses of cocaine and impacted the finances of those structures by more than $388.9m.”
Petro confirmed the seizure in a post on social media, calling it the largest by the Colombian police “in the last decade” as he posted a video of officers and canines raiding the warehouse in the Port of Buenaventura.
He added that the operation was carried out “without a single death”.
Pressure from Washington
The seizure comes as the Trump administration has ramped up pressure on Bogota over recent months, branding its anti-drug policies insufficient and threatening to remove Colombia from its list of allies in its war on drugs. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
