For failing to stop illegal mining and the trafficking of cocaine, Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, has announced that his nation will start imposing a 30% “security tariff” on its neighbor Colombia next month.
The announcement on Wednesday echoes those taken by US President Donald Trump, who has criticized Colombia’s left-wing government for failing to take a more aggressive approach to drug trafficking.
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Noboa revealed the new import tariff in a social media post. He reaffirmed that the new tax would apply as long as the nation showed “a real commitment to jointly combating drug-trafficking and illegal mining at the border.”
Even though Colombia has a trade deficit exceeding $1 billion annually, Noboa wrote, “We have made sincere efforts to cooperate with Colombia.”
“Our military continues to fight narcotics-related criminal organizations at the border without Colombia’s assistance, despite our insistence on dialogue.” Ecuador will start imposing a 30% security tariff on imports from Colombia on February 1 due to the absence of reciprocity and decisive action.
Trump’s close ties
Noboa, 38, a right-wing leader, has a strong affinity for Trump and his policies.
Noboa praised Trump’s victory in a social media post claiming that “the future looks bright for the Continent.”
Noboa has supported Trump’s efforts to expand US influence in Latin America, most notably by supporting a failed referendum in November that would have allowed the construction of US military installations in Ecuador.
The Noboa administration has argued that a close partnership with the US is required to stop violent crime there. However, the close ties have also supported Trump’s efforts to expand his control of the Western Hemisphere.
Trump’s homeland security secretary Kristi Noem has been a guest of Noboa twice in the past year, once in July and once more before the November ballot referendum.
Noem wrote at the time that Ecuador has been a valuable partner to the United States in its efforts to stop smugglers on land and in the seas, along with illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and smugglers.
Trump has characterized his second term in office by referring to tariffs as “the most beautiful word” in the dictionary. Since resuming as president in January 2025, he has implemented a comprehensive tariff campaign that includes additional individualized tariffs for some nations and a baseline tariff of 10% on nearly all trading partners.
Trump has argued that tariffs serve both the government and domestic industries. He has also used the economic penalty to compel trading partners to comply with policy demands.
For instance, Trump threatened tariff increases against Mexico and Canada as US neighbors last year if they failed to adequately combat cross-border immigration and drug smuggling.
His administration has also imposed a tariff on China to encourage the nation’s efforts to stop the flow of fentanyl.
However, some have questioned Trump’s coercive nature and its legality. Additionally, economists have warned that domestically higher consumer prices could be brought on by the import tax increases.
Disputed relationships with Petro
Noboa’s position is that he is using the threat of tariffs to retaliate against Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro as well as to impose his own policies.
Petro, a former rebel leader, became the first left-wing leader in his country in 2022. However, his efforts to combat drug trafficking have drawn criticism both domestically and internationally.
Colombia continues to be the top producer of cocaine worldwide. The United Nations stated in a report from 2024 that the nation had experienced ten more productive years in a row. Coca leaves, the raw ingredient in cocaine, are grown on nearly 253,000 hectares (645, 000 acres) throughout the nation.
A six-decade-long internal conflict in Colombia compliques efforts. Government forces, right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing rebels, and criminal networks have been fighting for years in this sluggish conflict.
Petro has resisted the heavy-handed crackdowns of his right-wing predecessors and has instead chosen a “Total Peace” strategy that involves dialogue with armed rebels and criminal organizations since taking office.
Additionally, his administration has shifted away from the largely rural farmers’ struggle to grow coca crops. Instead, it has criticized the labs and facilities that turn the leaf into drugs and has adopted a voluntary crop substitution strategy.
Nearly 18, 400 drug-making labs have been destroyed, according to Petro’s claim. Additionally, his administration claimed to have recovered 14 tonnes of cocaine from Colombia’s largest drug bust in a decade in November.
However, prominent right-wingers like Donald Trump have urged Colombia to take “more aggressive action.” Petro should “watch his a**,” the US president said, “watch his a**,” and threatened military action.
political and criminal differences
Noboa has been one of Petro’s region’s critics. His election was boosted in part by his pledge to combat Ecuador’s growing crime problem.
Ecuador has lost its reputation as an “island of peace” in Latin America as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, where criminal activity has increased.
A sharp rise in murders also occurred in line with that trend. The think tank Insight Crime discovered that Ecuador had the highest murder rate of any South American nation at 44.6 per 100,000 people as of 2024. In total, 7 062 homicides were committed in that year.
According to experts, Ecuador’s strategic alliance between Colombia and Peru, the second-largest producer of cocaine, contributes to the crime wave.
Noboa’s tariffs’ timing, however, has sparked questions about the president’s intentions and whether or not he was solely concerned with crime rather than politics.
One day before the new tariffs were implemented, Petro shared a message on social media supporting left-wing icon Jorge Glas, who was ex-Vice President of Ecuador.
Noboa had authorized a contentious raid on Mexico’s embassy in Quito in 2024 to detain Glas on bribery charges. Petro has accused the Ecuadorian government of using “psychological torture” against the former politician, and he currently spends time in a maximum security facility.
Jorge Glass should be released, Petro wrote on Tuesday, “just as I called for the release of political prisoners in Venezuela and Nicaragua.”
Some critics speculated that the tariffs were in part a response to Tuesday’s post because Petro and Noboa have been at odds with the Glas case.
The new taxes are likely to raise questions about the future of regional trade agreements because Ecuador and Colombia are one of the world’s leading trading partners.
Source: Aljazeera
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