The trade dispute between the United States and Colombia was resolved on Sunday after a series of heated exchanges between their leaders in public.
Colombia’s refusal to accept two US military planes carrying deported Colombian citizens led to Washington threatening tariffs and sanctions on Bogota. The US is Colombia’s biggest trading partner.
US President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro engaged in a war of words online until late Sunday, with Colombia eventually agreeing to accept the deportees and the US claiming victory. Here is more information about what transpired and what was at stake for Washington and Bogota.
## What was the dispute between Trump and Colombia about?
Colombian President Petro declined to allow two US military aircraft carrying deported Colombian migrants to land, amid Trump’s escalating crackdown on migration to the US.
He criticized Trump for not treating the deported migrants with dignity or respect. Petro shared a video on X showing deportees at an airport in Brazil, with their hands and feet restrained. “I cannot allow migrants to stay in a country that does not want them; but if that country sends them back, it must be done with dignity and respect for them and for our country,” he stated.
In 2022, there were an estimated 240,000 unauthorized Colombian immigrants in the US, according to a report by the US Department of Homeland Security.
Petro offered to send a presidential plane to facilitate the return of the migrants, arguing that it was more dignified than the way the US was deporting them.
Trump responded by accusing Petro of endangering US security.
Threatening tariffs and sanctions, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday: “These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations regarding the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also announced on Sunday that he was imposing visa restrictions on those Colombian officials and their families “responsible for the interference of US repatriation flight operations.”
## What was Trump’s tariff threat?
As the back-and-forth continued, Trump increased his threats, ordering 25 percent tariffs on all Colombian goods entering the US. He warned that these tariffs would then be raised to 50 percent the following week.
Additionally, Trump said he would impose “visa sanctions” and a “travel ban and immediate visa revocations” on government officials and their family members and supporters, while increasing border inspections of all Colombian nationals and cargo.
## What was Colombia’s response?
In response to Trump’s threats, Petro threatened to also impose 25 percent tariffs on US goods.
The Colombian president posted several defiant messages on X on Sunday in response to Trump’s threats.
“Your blockade does not intimidate me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world,” he wrote in one post.
“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” Petro wrote on X, also pointing out that there are “15,660 Americans irregularly settled in Colombia.”
The dispute was resolved late on Sunday. Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo stated at a press conference that officials had “resolved the deadlock” and would accept citizens deported from the US. He added: “The government of Colombia… has the presidential plane ready to facilitate the return of Colombians who were going to arrive in the country this morning on deportation flights.”
Colombia’s statement also mentioned that Murillo and Colombia’s ambassador to the US would travel to Washington in the coming days to continue diplomatic dialogue and ease tensions.
The White House echoed this in a statement, stating that Colombia had agreed to all of Trump’s terms, including “unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”
## What does the US import from Colombia?
Both countries would have been impacted if the tariff war had escalated.
From January to November 2024, the US imported goods worth $16 billion from Colombia, according to US Census data.
The US receives most of its cut flowers from Colombia, importing nearly two-thirds, or 66 percent of its cut flowers from the country, according to 2022 data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). The upcoming Valentine’s Day would have been more expensive for Americans if the tariffs had been implemented.
The US also gets just over 20 percent of its imported coffee from Colombia – slightly behind Brazil, the top coffee supplier to the US.
In addition, the US imports crude petroleum, gold, aluminum structures, bananas, and coffee and tea extracts from Colombia – but in smaller quantities.
Colombia is one of the few countries that has a trade deficit with the US. In other words, the US exports more to Colombia than it imports from the South American nation.
## How would a trade war with the US impact Colombia?
A trade war would have made specific goods – like flowers and coffee – more expensive for US consumers, but it would have had broader implications for Colombia’s economy, affecting both its exports and imports.
“These measures would have significant political and economic implications,” Victor Munoz, a visiting fellow at the Germany-based think tank European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera.
“For Colombia, such actions could result in the loss of thousands of jobs, particularly in sectors like oil and gas, gold, coffee, and flowers,” he explained.
The US is Colombia’s largest trading partner in terms of both imports and exports, according to 2022 OEC data. A quarter of Colombia’s exports go to the US, and US imports make up 26.4 percent of Colombia’s total imports.
“Colombia has been working for decades to expand its commercial partnerships and diversify its international relations. However, expecting Colombia to immediately replace the export destinations for its products and services or the scale of US investments is unrealistic in the short term,” Munoz said.
From January to November 2024, Colombia imported goods worth $17 billion from the US, according to US Census data.
In 2023, the US sent about $2.5 billion worth of petroleum products to Colombia, making petroleum products the US’s most valuable export to Colombia. The next most valuable exports were corn, at $1.2 billion, and chemicals, at $1 billion in the same year.
Colombia also imports soybean meal and planes, among other items, from the US.
“Tariffs could also lead to a devaluation of the Colombian peso, increasing economic risks and creating inflationary pressure due to the rising costs of imported goods and raw materials,” Munoz said.
“Such measures would undoubtedly have significant economic and social impacts in the affected countries like Colombia.”
## What are deportation flights and are they new?
A deportation flight is a flight that repatriates unauthorized immigrants to their country of origin. However, this is the first time US military aircraft have been used for deportations, according to an unnamed US official cited by Agence France-Presse.
Deportation is not a new practice, as the US began deporting immigrants as early as 1892 when 2,801 immigrants were removed, according to the Department of Homeland Security. However, the numbers increased significantly in the 1990s.
When Democratic US President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he had promised to pause deportations but ended up expanding them, deporting the highest number of immigrants in nearly a decade – over 271,000 in the last fiscal year.
Between 2021 and 2024, the US deported 28,635 Colombian citizens, according to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website. Nearly half of these deportations occurred in the 2024 fiscal year.
Trump contested the 2024 election on allegations that the Biden administration allowed “hordes” of undocumented immigrants into the country, also making baseless claims that countries were sending violent criminals to the US.
He vowed to carry out the “largest deportation operation in history.”
Meanwhile, Trump has indicated his intention to use tariffs as a tool, threatening strict tariffs against countries including China, Mexico, and Canada.
