BOGOTA/QUITO, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Colombia said early on Thursday that it will impose a 30% tariff on 20 products from Ecuador and that it has suspended electricity sales to the neighboring country, a day after Ecuador announced charges on Colombian products because of the alleged failure to work together against drug trafficking, an allegation the Colombian government has roundly rejected.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa said on Wednesday his country will impose a 30% “security charge” on goods from Colombia, a major electricity provider, starting on February 1, citing a trade deficit and a lack of cooperation on fighting drug trafficking.
Colombian officials have repeatedly rejected that allegation, with President Gustavo Petro taking to X late on Wednesday to say his country has seized 200 tons of cocaine on the border and participated in hundreds of instances of combat against drug gangs.
“The collaboration with the armed forces of Ecuador is tight,” said Petro, adding he was willing to expand joint efforts to fight fentanyl. “I hope Ecuador has been grateful, when they have needed us, that we have acted energetically in solidarity.”
The 30% tariff by Colombia is “proportional, transitory and revisable,” the Colombian commerce and industry ministry said on X in an overnight post, and is meant to restore balance in trade relations after Ecuador’s unilateral decision. The country is open to dialogue, the post added.
Later in the morning, the energy ministry said it had issued a resolution “which suspends the international transactions of electricity with Ecuador, as a preventative measure to guarantee internal supply in the face of climate variability”.
“When adequate technical, energy and commercial conditions exist, exports will be reactivated,” the ministry added.
Colombia Energy Minister Edwin Palma has already blasted the tariffs, saying on Wednesday he had ordered the dismantling of a recent initiative to allow private firms to take part in energy sales between the countries to limit potential scarcity and that Colombia provides up to 10% of Ecuador’s power consumption.
The Ecuadorean government did not immediately respond to a request for comment after Colombia’s measure on Thursday.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Alexandra Valencia)
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