After Colombian President Gustavo Petro blocked two U.S. deportation flights from landing, U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday announced a suite of economic measures targeting Colombia, including the imposition of “emergency” 25% tariff on all Colombian goods coming into the United States.
Trump, who made the announcement on his social media platform Truth Social, said that the tariffs would increase to 50% in one week. Trump also wrote that banking and financial sanctions will be “fully imposed” on Colombia, and his administration will apply a travel ban and revoke the visas of Colombian government officials in the U.S.
“These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the criminals they forced into the United States!” Trump wrote.
“To ‘punish’ Colombia, Trump is about to make every American pay even more for coffee,” wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y) on X Sunday. “Remember: We pay the tariffs, not Colombia. Trump is all about making inflation worse for working class Americans, not better. He’s lining the pockets of himself and the billionaire class,” she wrote.
Colombian President Petro then reposted Ocasio-Cortez’s post.
Axios reported Sunday that coffee beans from Colombia make up one fifth of U.S. coffee imports, and that coffee prices were already rising before Trump’s invocation of tariffs. Tariffs could increase coffee prices for consumers because “importers pay the tariffs and often pass the increased prices on to consumers,” according to CNN.
Hours after Trump’s post on Truth Social, Petro hit back.
“I am informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our labor entering the United States, and I do the same,” Petro wrote in a long post on X . Petro then wrote on X that he had ordered Colombia’s foreign trade minister to increase tariffs on imports from the U.S. to 25%.
Petro said earlier Sunday that his government would not accept flights carrying migrants deported from the U.S. until the White House creates a protocol that treats them with “dignity,” according to The Associated Press.
