Ecuador and Colombia impose tariffs amid border tensions
Ecuador and Colombia have entered a tariff dispute after Ecuador's government decided to impose a 30% duty on imports from Colombia. Quito justified the move by citing border security concerns and a persistent trade imbalance.
Colombia responded swiftly, suspending electricity exports to Ecuador and announcing equivalent tariffs on an initial list of 20 Ecuadorian products, escalating tensions between the two Andean neighbors, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa said Wednesday that the 30% tariff would apply to certain Colombian imports starting Feb. 1, citing what he described as a lack of reciprocity and insufficient security cooperation by the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
The measure will remain in force "until there is a real commitment to jointly confront drug trafficking and illegal mining along the border," Noboa said in a post on X.
Noboa contended that Ecuador has made "real efforts of cooperation" with Colombia, despite running a trade deficit that he said exceeds $1 billion annually. He added that those efforts have not been met with comparable actions by the Colombian side.
The sectors most affected by the 30% tariff are expected to be those with the highest share of bilateral trade, including electricity, pharmaceuticals for human use, certain food products, cane sugars, jet fuel, vehicles and unroasted coffee.
Colombia's Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism Diana Marcela Morales Rojas said the 30% tariff Colombia will apply to 20 products imported from Ecuador is a temporary instrument aimed at restoring balance to bilateral trade conditions.
"In the government of President Gustavo Petro, we have strengthened the state's institutional capacity to act in a technical and proportional manner, in accordance with existing regulations, when the rules governing trade between countries are altered," Morales said, according to local outlet El Colombiano.
As part of the escalating dispute, Colombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy announced Thursday the suspension of International Electricity Transactions with Ecuador, arguing the decision was necessary to guarantee domestic energy supply.
The ministry said the move responds to climate variability and projections of reduced firm energy availability in Colombia's national interconnected system, factors it said increase risks to the country's energy security.
"The duty of the state is to ensure, above all, that Colombian households, industry and essential services have secure and reliable energy," said Energy and Mines Minister Edwin Palma Egea, according to Ecuadorian daily El Universo. He described the suspension as "a responsible, preventive and sovereign decision."
By Ulviyya Salmanli
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