The United States and Colombia narrowly avoided a trade war on Sunday after the White House said the South American country had agreed to accept military planes carrying deported migrants.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs and sanctions on Colombia to punish it for refusing to accept military flights carrying deportees as part of his broad crackdown on immigration.
But in a statement late Sunday, the White House said Colombia had agreed to accept the migrants and that Washington would not pursue the threatened sanctions.
“The Government of Colombia has accepted all of President Trump’s terms, including unrestricted acceptance of all Colombian illegal aliens returning from the United States, including on board U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay,” he said.
Draft decrees imposing tariffs and sanctions on Colombia will be “held in reserve and unsigned unless Colombia complies with this agreement,” he added.
“Today’s events make it clear to the world that America is once again respected. President Trump… expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States,” we read in the note. White House.
In a statement late Sunday, Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said, “We have overcome the impasse with the United States government.”
“The government of Colombia… has the presidential plane ready to facilitate the return of Colombians who were supposed to arrive in the country this morning on deportation flights.”
The statement does not specifically say the deal includes military flights, but it does not contradict the White House announcement.
Murillo and Colombia’s ambassador to the United States will travel to Washington in the next few days to continue the agreements that led to the exchange of diplomatic notes between the two governments, the Colombian note reads.
Washington’s preliminary measures, now suspended, include imposing 25% tariffs on all Colombian products entering the United States, which would rise to 50% within a week; travel ban and visa revocation for Colombian government officials; and urgent Treasury, banking and financial sanctions.
Before the flight deal was announced, a State Department spokesperson said the United States had suspended visa processing at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.
Colombia is the United States’ third largest trading partner in Latin America.
The United States is Colombia’s largest trading partner, largely thanks to a 2006 free trade agreement that generated $33.8 billion in bilateral trade in 2023 and a U.S. trade surplus of $1.6 billion, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro had criticized the military deportation flights and said he would never carry out a raid to bring handcuffed Americans back to the United States.
“We are the opposite of Nazis,” he wrote in a post on social media platform X.
However, he also said Colombia would receive deported immigrants on civilian planes and offered his presidential plane to facilitate their “dignified return.”
Source: Terra
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