EL TIEMPO learned of a letter sent by the Ministry of Commerce to the National Tax and Customs Directorate (Dian), in which it requested the urgent issuance of regulations to prohibit the import of goods produced with forced labor.
With this measure, Colombia sought to protect itself against the United States’ warning to impose a 12.5 percent tariff on countries that did not have effective controls to prevent the entry of such products into their markets.
However, the regulation was not issued on time. As a result, this Thursday, the United States confirmed that Colombia is part of the group of almost 60 countries that will have to pay the tariff surcharge on certain products.
In the letter, the Ministry of Commerce urged Dian to expedite the necessary procedures so that the regulations would be ready by July 6 at the latest.
According to the entity, the issuance of this regulation sought to respond to “the international commitments assumed by Colombia regarding the prevention and eradication of forced labor“
Furthermore, it addressed a recommendation from the National Business Council, which had requested prioritizing this prohibition through objective risk criteria, rigorous investigations, and due process guarantees.
Letter from the Ministry of Commerce to Dian by deiqui9108
The letter emphasized that the timely adoption of the rule would not only strengthen customs controls to protect local competitiveness but also consolidate the country’s position with its trading partners by demonstrating a firm commitment to labor rights and global supply chains.
In fact, Dian itself had expressed in inter-institutional meetings “its willingness and commitment to lead the issuance of the necessary regulations to make said prohibition effective”.
As the regulation was not finalized within the foreseen deadline, Colombian exports that are not expressly exempted will go from paying a 10 percent tariff to a 12.5 percent tariff.
In this regard, the president of the Colombian-American Chamber (AmCham Colombia), María Claudia Lacouture, clarified that the sanction does not imply that national goods are produced with forced labor.
“The questioning is directed at the institutional system with which Colombia controls what it imports from third countries”, she specified.
While goods such as coffee, oil, gold, bananas, avocados and certain sugars were excluded from the measure, key sectors such as flowers, apparel, confectionery, chocolates, processed foods, cosmetics and other manufactured goods will face the new tariff.
Although formally the tax is paid by the importer in the United States, in practice the additional cost usually falls on the Colombian exporter through lower prices, is passed on to the final consumer, or is shared between both ends of the chain.
This immediately reduces profit margins and reduces the competitiveness of Colombian products against competitors with more favorable tariffs such as Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Argentina.
Despite the outlook, Lacouture believes there is a way to seek the reduction or elimination of the tariff: “With the arrival of the new government, there is prudent optimism about the possibility of quickly advancing in the adoption and application of the measures required to request the United States to review the tariff”.