Colombia May Be Decertified From US, Agricultural Exports At Risk
Colombia May Be Decertified From US, Agricultural Exports At Risk
Bogota (Coffee Network )- The Colombian-American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) opened the door to a decertification of Colombia by the United States due to the recent tensions between President Donald Trump and President Gustavo Petro, and the skyrocketing number of illicit crops, which could result in the reduction of trade between the two countries, potentially impacting coffee exports.
Juan Cruz, former security advisor for the Americas for the Trump government, added to that possibility: "A next crisis or measure could be a decertification by the Trump government, we must be prepared and make a grand strategy."
The US and Colombian Presidents clashed over the situation of migrants, putting at risk trade between the two countries.
The president of AmCham, María Claudia Lacouture, considered that Trump's threats could be reflected sooner rather than later: "Decertification is an issue that is on the table," she said during a panel held yesterday.
Colombia reached 253,000 hectares of coca crops 2023, up 10% on the previous year, according to the Integrated System for Monitoring Illicit Crops (SIMCI) report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The government’s anti-narcotics strategy, which breaks with that of its predecessors, has taken a much more permissive stance on coca crops, according to Insight Crime.
Since taking power in 2022, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has directed the efforts of security forces and institutions toward seizing drugs and attacking the most lucrative links in drug trafficking, while helping rural communities move toward legal alternatives. His predecessors were more focused on eradication, a move the United States has helped fund for decades.
In 1996 and 1997, Colombia was decertified resulting in the reduction of commercial trade and the cut of tariffs preferences. This would certainly impact the main export products to the US, which are coffee and cut flowers, as well as cocoa among others, analysts said.
Colombian president Gustavo Petro agreed to take deported illegal Colombian migrants from the US in a bid to avert an economic crisis after US president Donald Trump slapped tariffs of 25pc on Colombian exports, which would have hit mainly coffee and cacao exports, following Petro’s refusal to take back the migrants.
The diplomatic crisis between the two nations erupted on Sunday after Trump said he would enact a 25pc tariff on all goods coming into the US from Colombia, which will be raised to 50pc in one week, after two repatriation flights of undocumented migrants were not allowed to land in Colombia. The measure would have hit coffee, cut flowers, avocado and fruits among others as well as oil exports.
President Petro at first said in the afternoon that Colombia would retaliate by imposing 50pc tariffs on US goods, but the White House on Sunday evening later said that Colombia had agreed to accept migrants - including those arriving on US military aircraft - "without limitation or delay.
The US is Colombia’s largest trading partner, accounting for 34pcof Colombia’s total trade, and Colombia is a top ten supplier of crude oil to the US, according to US department of State. Meanwhile, Colombia is the fifth-largest export market in the Western Hemisphere. Colombia imported US $13.304 billion of US products in January-October, while Colombia exported $13.106 billion in January-November, according to the US-Colombian chamber of commerce (Amcham), using figures from the country’s statistics department.
Colombia exported 11.018 million 60-kg bags in January-November, of which 4.344 million bags were shipped to the United States, according to the country’s coffee exporters association Asoexport. Currently, coffee enters the US without tariffs.
Coffee exports to the US were worth US$1.29 billion as of November, compared with $1.35 billion in full year 2023, the coffee growers federation said.
By Diana Delgado
