The White House has pulled back the US and Colombia from a trade war with its major announcement.
According to CNN, after an immigrant’s deportation row between Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the White House late on Sunday, January 26, 2025, announced that Colombia has agreed to “unrestricted acceptance” of illegal immigrants to avoid a 25% tariff slap from the US President.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in the statement, “The Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”
“Based on this agreement, the fully drafted IEEPA tariffs and sanctions will be held in reserve and not signed unless Colombia fails to honour this agreement,” he added.
Leavitt explained that although tariffs and financial sanctions will be paused, visa sanctions, stricter customs inspections, and cargo ship orders of the president will remain in effect “until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned.”
Moreover, this came after Trump threatened to increase retaliatory tariffs for Colombia after Petro did not allow two US military aircraft transporting Colombian nationals who illegally entered the US to land in the South American country.
