BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia said Friday it would raise tariffs on imports from Ecuador to 100%, matching Quito’s latest move and pushing a months-long bilateral clash over security, trade and diplomacy into a sharper phase, April 10, 2026.
Reuters reported Friday that Bogotá will lift the tariff from 30% to 100% after Ecuador doubled its own levy a day earlier. In a separate statement from Colombia’s trade ministry, Commerce Minister Diana Marcela Morales said the government would immediately take the change to its Triple A committee to modify Decree 170. Reuters also said Colombia reported a $1.02 billion trade surplus with Ecuador in 2025 and noted that Ecuador depends on Colombian medicines and pesticides.
Colombia Ecuador tariffs now hit 100% on both sides
The immediate trigger came from Quito. Reuters reported on April 9 that Ecuador raised tariffs on Colombian goods to 100% from 50%, after first imposing a 30% charge at the end of January, and said the new rate would take effect May 1.
That leaves both governments arguing they are responding rather than initiating. Ecuador has framed its measures as a security response to what it says is weak Colombian action against drug trafficking along the shared border. Colombia, by contrast, says the tariffs distort competition, punish exporters and violate Andean trade rules.
What is driving the Colombia Ecuador tariffs fight
The tariff spiral is no longer only about customs policy. The two governments have also clashed over anti-narcotics cooperation, border security, electricity exports and President Gustavo Petro’s criticism of Ecuador’s treatment of former Vice President Jorge Glas. What began as a “security tax” dispute now sits inside a wider diplomatic rupture.
The stakes are larger than a bilateral spat because Colombia and Ecuador belong to a bloc built around tariff-free trade. As the Andean Community itself notes, its members normally sell to one another without tariffs, and 82.9% of intracommunity exports in 2024 were manufactured goods. That makes the latest measures especially disruptive for traders and manufacturers that have long operated inside a zero-duty framework.
How the Colombia Ecuador tariffs dispute built over time
The latest retaliation did not emerge overnight. Ecuador first announced a 30% tariff on Colombian goods on Jan. 21, saying the measure would start Feb. 1. Colombia answered the next day with its own 30% tariff on selected Ecuadorian products and a halt to electricity sales. By late February, Bogotá was already preparing a move toward 50% after Quito raised its own levy to that level, and truckers and merchants were protesting at the border that the fight was hurting local economies long before the latest jump to 100%.
What comes next
The next question is whether either government backs down before the tariffs begin biting in full. Ecuador’s 100% rate is due to take effect May 1, while Colombia has said it is starting the process to align its own tariff with that level. If neither side steps back, manufacturers, importers and buyers of goods such as medicines, pesticides and other manufactured products will face higher costs.
For now, the message from both capitals is that this is no longer a narrow trade quarrel. It has become leverage in a wider argument over security, sovereignty and political respect, making a quick de-escalation harder to see.
