Hours after announcing its plan to impose sanctions and tariffs on Colombia, the US administration said it won’t be moving ahead with its plan after the South American nation agreed to accept deported migrants from America.
The development was confirmed by the White House press secretary said in a statement late on Sunday.
On Sunday, after Trump’s tax imposition announcement, Colombia, the third largest US trading partner in Latin America, swiftly responded, threatening a 50% tariff on American goods. The country’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, later posted on X that he directed his trade minister to increase tariffs on US imports by 25%.
Colombia is the second Latin American nation to refuse US military deportation flights. Trump’s punitive action demonstrated his more muscular US foreign policy and his renewed willingness to force countries to bend to his will.
The US is Colombia’s largest trading partner, largely due to a 2006 free trade agreement, with $33.8 billion worth of two-way trade in 2023 and a $1.6 billion US trade surplus, according to US Census Bureau data.
The biggest US imports from Colombia that year were crude oil, gold, coffee, and cut roses. Top American exports to Colombia were gasoline and other petroleum products, commercial aircraft, corn, crude oil and soybeans.
Trump has declared illegal immigration a national emergency and imposed a sweeping crackdown since taking office on January 20. He directed the US military to help with border security, issued a broad ban on asylum and took steps to restrict citizenship for children born on American soil.
‘Not Criminals’
Earlier on Sunday, Petro had condemned the practice, suggesting it treated migrants like criminals. In a post on social media platform X, Petro said Colombia would welcome home deported migrants on civilian planes.
“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” Petro wrote.
Petro said even though there were 15,660 Americans without legal immigration status in Colombia, he would never carry out a raid to return handcuffed Americans to the US.
“We are the opposite of the Nazis,” he wrote.
Mexico also refused a request last week to let a US military aircraft land with migrants.
Trump has said he was thinking about imposing 25% duties on imports from Canada and Mexico on February 1 to force further action against illegal immigrants and fentanyl flowing into the US.
Growing Discontent
There is a growing chorus of discontent in Latin America as Trump’s week-old administration starts mobilizing for mass deportations.
Brazil’s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned “degrading treatment” of Brazilians after migrants were handcuffed on a commercial deportation flight. Upon arrival, some passengers also reported mistreatment during the flight, according to local news reports.
The plane, which was carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 American security agents, and eight crew members, had been originally scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
However, at an unscheduled stop due to technical problems in Manaus, capital of Amazonas, Brazilian officials ordered removal of the handcuffs, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva designated a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) flight to complete their journey, the government said in a statement on Saturday.
The commercial charter flight was the second this year from the US carrying undocumented migrants deported back to Brazil and the first since Trump’s inauguration, according to Brazil’s federal police.
(With inputs from Reuters)
